


Dark Angels of the Skies

by IllusionEvenstar



Category: Gargoyles (TV)
Genre: Blood Drinking, Character Turned Into Vampire, F/M, Human/Gargoyle relationship, Hybrids, Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 21:33:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 32,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12590984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IllusionEvenstar/pseuds/IllusionEvenstar
Summary: A new breed of gargoyle has fallen into Goliath's clan...literally. No one knows who she was or where she come from, and the only person she trusts is...Brooklyn?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Old fic written in 2003
> 
> I am quite a fan of Gargoyles when it first came out in the Disney Channel, and I even watch the reruns when they're on, catching any episodes I've missed. Hunter’s Moon arc has always been my favourite in all of the episode arcs.
> 
> You can pretty much guess who is my favourite gargoyle in the series LOL

**NOTE: There will be italics at the beginning of every chapter to show the POV of our mysterious being.**

* * *

_She slumped and let the wind glide through her vast wings, guiding her through the starry night. The cold autumn wind of_ _Manhattan_ _bit through her frail body and her weak bones mercilessly but she knew that without it, she wasn’t going to go anywhere._

_As the wind ceased, so did her height. She could feel herself getting lower and lower and was closing in onto the ground below her. Try as she might with whatever strength she has left, she simply couldn’t steer or make herself soar above and among the clouds. Her body just fell lower and lower and before she knew it she was heading towards the huge clock tower of_ _Manhattan_ _._

_Before her body rammed onto the face of the clock, she bent the upper half of her body and guided her flight down towards the brick floor. She landed onto the solid ground with a loud thud and skidded until her back hit the face of the clock, cracking it a little. Her breathing became slower and fainter as she realized that she had finally stopped being in the air._

_The beating of wings was the last thing she heard before she lost herself into unconsciousness._

                                                                                    *

            The distant sound of beating wings signified that the gargoyles have returned. First it was our Terrific Trio Broadway, Lexington and Brooklyn and the only female of the herd, Angela. They have just returned from watching a movie entitled ‘The Defenders of Dynamation City 2’ and they sure had a blast watching it by sneaking in from the back door or the rooftop as usual. They were so engrossed in discussing the movie that they didn’t see immediately what was at their territory. It was only when Hudson came up to the tower with Bronx after watching his usual TV that they noticed it.

            “Holy names of the gods,” Hudson exclaimed when he walked through the door on the face of the clock. “What in the world is that, lads?”

            The trio and Angela turned to look at what Hudson was exclaiming about and were slightly shocked. They all moved towards the being that lay motionless near the face of the clock, staring curiously at it and not daring to touch in case it gets vicious and all. Goliath came back the last and was looking them quizzically.

            “What is it, Hudson? What are you looking at?” Goliath asked.

            “Aye, ‘tis one oddity we’re looking at, lad. Come and look for yerself,” Hudson replied in his familiar Scottish accent.

            Goliath made his way through the gathering crowd of gargoyles around him and stepped closer to the being that was lying face down on the brick floor. He tentatively held out his hand and turned the being around to get a better look. Everyone gasped at the sight of it. It was a female gargoyle, but her features were not like one. She had protruding fangs in her slightly opened mouth and pointed ears, just like theirs, but she has no tail and she had no claws or gargoyle-like feet like they have. As Goliath looked closely, he noticed that her hands and feet were like humans’. In fact her face and her body were human all the way, including her skin which was almost as tan as Elisa’s. And yet, despite all this weirdness, she has a pair of wings just like theirs. A pair of large, vast and powerful wings.

            “My goodness, what in the world is this?” Broadway asked, looking very befuddled.

            “I have no idea,” Lexington replied. Even someone modern-minded and a genius as he was couldn’t figure out who or what this being is. Bronx crawled over and sniffed her for a while before he whined and licked her, trying to wake her up in vain.

            “Could she be a hybrid? Like a mix breed or some kind?” Brooklyn asked.

            “No,” Goliath replied in his rumbling low voice. “Besides us and Demona, there is no one else who could have created such a being. Besides, if Demona did have relationships with humans, with her body-shifting from stone to flesh, it would’ve killed the child. She has to be a pure gargoyle to be able to live to this age.”

            “Could it be one of you, Broadway, Brooklyn? You have been showing interest on human girls lately!” Lexington immediately pointed fingers at his friends.

            “What?! You gotta be kidding me! I’m with Angela, and I’m not hanging with anyone else!” Broadway said quickly, holding Angela’s hand. “And I assure you she has always been with me; there is no way she would’ve been with a human.”

            “Well, don’t look at me!” Brooklyn protested. “It’s already frightening enough for humans to see me, let alone fall for me! You, on the other hand, Lex, might be something else!”

            “Me?! I have never touched any human female in my entire life! Even if I did, I wouldn’t have such a grown-up kid! We’ve only been in this future world for about a couple of years!” Lexington replied gruffly, annoyed that he was the one accused.

            “Let’s not fight over this,” Goliath came between the bickering trio solemnly. “It’s almost dawn and we need to have our rest. One of you go and put her somewhere safe inside the tower and we’ll talk to Elisa about this tomorrow night. She might be coming.”

            Everyone nodded in agreement. Brooklyn volunteered to carry her inside the tower. He carried her in his arms and walked into the tower, looking for the hay which was somewhere under the stairs. He found it and glided down towards it, careful not to drop her. As he lay her onto the hay, she stirred a little and muttered something gibberish. He couldn’t quite catch it though. When he was about to leave to join his brothers in their stone slumber, something caught one of his wings, stopping him from moving. He turned around and saw that the being’s hand was grasped tightly onto it.

            “Hey, hey, lady, let go,” Brooklyn said, tugging at his wing. “I need to get my beauty sleep. Let go of me. Let go!”

            But the being didn’t let go. She muttered something and this time it was much clearer, “Don’t… leave… me… Don’t leave… me… alone…”

            Brooklyn stared at the being for a moment. They have just met and just found her in the middle of the tower and know nothing about each other and suddenly this being was trusting him? Her eyes were closed quite tight as if she was desperate for someone to be by her side and was afraid to be alone. After quite a long while and as the sun slowly rose from the horizon and seeped through the glass of the face of the clock, Brooklyn sighed and sat down beside the being. She slowly inched her way towards Brooklyn and rested her head on his lap.

            “Oh boy,” Brooklyn sighed again in defeat. “Oh well, a change of place should be OK. Boy, you really got a strong grip, don’t you?”

            Those were the last words that escaped out of Brooklyn’s mouth before his body slowly turned into stone.


	2. Chapter 2

_She could see herself among a whole lot of scientific equipment. She knew she came to this kind of place before. She knew she used to be in some kind of profession to be hanging around with this equipment. She knew that this equipment was her life, her soul, her everything. She knew their names, their uses, their dangers and their advantages. She knew that she used to feel that she couldn’t live without them._

_But she just couldn’t remember when._

_Then all of a sudden, she had a certain hate for this equipment. All the equipment suddenly became a sort of torture to her. A sort of weapon that made her into something that she wasn’t. She hated them. She hated the sight of them and she hated their existence before her. She wanted them to disappear, to get out of her life, to just not exist at all._

_With all her might, she rammed her hands onto them and pushed them all over. She smashed them and crushed and did everything in her power to destroy them. She wanted them gone so badly that she was willing to kill for it. Anger overcame her feeling of belonging towards them and she was bent to demolish and destroy. One by one, they smashed into pieces in her hands, shards of glass stuck onto her hands and making them bleed. Not that she cared. She wanted them gone, that’s all she wanted. Nothing more than that._

_As she finally destroyed the last piece of equipment, she let out a raging scream of fury._

                                                                                    *

            The sun has finally set and the sky was getting dark. It was a sign for our gargoyle heroes to awake from their stony slumber, and that includes Brooklyn who was sitting beside the being for the whole day. One by one, they broke out of their stone encasing and let out a roar-like yawn. First, it was Goliath, then Hudson, followed by Broadway, Lexington, Bronx, Angela and finally Brooklyn.

            The first sound that reached their ears was the screams from inside the tower. They all rushed into the tower to see what the matter was. They were quite taken aback to see that the being was having some sort of a fit and Brooklyn was trying hard to hold her and calm her down. Broadway and Lexington came to Brooklyn’s help to try and calm the being down. She was screaming and yelling like an angry animal and was ranting and raving about something to do with test tubes and syringes and all sort of weird things they couldn’t put together what. Bronx tried to calm her down by licking her face but ended being beaten away when Broadway could grab hold of her arms. Goliath decided to take over. he stood before the juvenile gargoyles before him and waited for the right moment before he hugged the being abruptly, holding her down in place, although she still tried to wriggle her way out.

            “Where the heck is Hudson?” Lexington asked, looking frantically for the elder gargoyle of the clan.

            “Aye, I’m here, lad,” Hudson replied, coming out with a glass of water. “Just getting something for the lass.”

            “A glass of water?” Brooklyn asked. “She’s in no right shape to drink water.”

            “No, lad, but this would clear her out of her nightmares.”

            With that, he splashed the water onto the being’s face. She coughed and spluttered before slowly opening her eyes, slowly getting out of her hellish nightmare, whatever it was. Her eyes came to focus and the first thing she saw was the trio, looking at her with concern looks on their faces, seeing if she was alright. Whether it was out of shock or fear, she broke out of Goliath’s arms and flew onto a higher spot, out of the other gargoyles’ reach. She snarled at them, baring her fangs at them threateningly. Another thing that confirmed them that she wasn’t entirely a gargoyle was that her eyes didn’t glow like theirs when she was angry. They remained the same—a pair of eyes the colour of the darkest purple you can ever find and her hair as dark and black as night billowing about her shoulders, with long sideburns to match.

            “Easy, woman,” Goliath said, trying to coax her down. “We’re friends. We’re not going to hurt you.”

           His approach didn’t work. She continued to snarl and snap whenever Goliath tried to reach out his hand to touch her. Lexington and Broadway tried their luck, with Lexington luring her with his latest videogame and Broadway using food, but she swiped her hands at them, believing that she had claws and could scratch at them to keep them away, all the while still snarling and growling like an animal or some kind. Even Angela tried to help but in vain.

            “’Tis no use, lad,” Hudson said, shaking his head. “She’s like an untamed animal that just came from the wilderness.”

            “Guess this sandwich is not gonna work for her then,” Broadway replied as he opened his mouth to eat the foot-long sandwich made out of French bread. Brooklyn sighed. He couldn’t imagine that Broadway would think of food at a time like this. He then shifted his gaze towards the being who was perched up on her high spot. He noticed that she was looking at Broadway with longing as the fat gargoyle chomped off half of the sandwich. He grabbed the half-eaten sandwich out of his hand all of a sudden.

            “Hey, that’s mine!” Broadway protested but Lexington stopped him. Somehow he thinks that Brooklyn had a plan.

            And sure he did. With the sandwich in his hand, he walked towards the being who was still perched up there, snarling and making her point that she was not going to come down. He looked up and said in a kind voice, “Hey there, lady. You want this sandwich? Then you have to come down. Remember me? You grabbed my wing and refused me to leave you alone last dawn, remember? You had a hard grip, you know, and I just can’t get free from it. Come on, take my wing like you did and come down.”

            The being stared at Brooklyn who stood sideways to hold out his wing for her to hold. Her eyes shifted from his wing to the sandwich and back again.

            “It’s OK, no one’s gonna hurt you,” Brooklyn said reassuringly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

            Tentatively, she held out her hand and grasped Brooklyn’s wing before coming down slowly. She almost looked like a little child when she had her hand grasping Brooklyn’s wing tightly while looking shiftily at the other gargoyles who were looking at Brooklyn in awe, as if he had done some sort of miracle. He then handed the half-eaten sandwich and nodded his head. She took it and dashed off towards her high spot again, wolfing down the sandwich hungrily.

            “Nice work, Brooklyn,” Broadway said in admiration. “I think she likes you.”

            “Yeah, whatever,” Brooklyn replied awkwardly. “I have no idea why anyway.”

            “It’s a good thing though,” Goliath replied, quite impressed. “At least she has someone she could trust.”

            “I’ll get some more food for the lass,” Hudson said. “She looks like she hasn’t been eating for the last 1000 years.”

            As Hudson walked away with Bronx at his tail for more supplies, the gargoyles continued to look with interest at the being who had eaten her sandwich in less than a few seconds. Her mouth was all covered with mayonnaise and tomato sauce and bread crumbs and she was licking them.

            “Where do you think she come from, Goliath?” Angela asked her father. “She doesn’t look like us, yet she doesn’t look like a human at all.”

            “Maybe she is both,” Lexington said. “Like a hybrid or some kind. Or maybe another one of Xanatos’ experimental subjects, like Talon and the other guys.”

            Brooklyn’s heart ached at upon hearing that. He was still a little bit sour about Maggie Reed, the human who had fallen into Xanatos’ treachery and became a half-feline-half-gargoyle creature. Could this girl be one of them too? Could she be one of them who was newly created yet strayed away from the pack?

            “She may be a hybrid, but she is definitely does not belong to Xanatos,” Goliath replied. “If she was, Xanatos would be sending a search party by now. She wouldn’t have stayed here.”

            “Good point.”

            “Hey, Brooklyn,” Broadway nudged the white-haired gargoyle with a grin and said. “Why don’t you try asking your girlfriend where did she come from?”

            “Get off,” Brooklyn growled before walking towards the being. He held out his wing again and this time, the being didn’t hesitate to come down and grasp it. It was like she had made Brooklyn’s wing into some sort of a security reassurance. She looked timidly at Brooklyn and purred.

            “Hey, lady, can you tell us where do you come from?”

            The being looked away. She seemed shifty about that question and was reluctant to answer.

            “OK then, let’s start with names. My name is Brooklyn,” Brooklyn pointed to himself, then pointed at his fellow gargoyles one by one. “And that’s Lexington, Broadway, Angela, Goliath, and that,” Brooklyn pointed at Hudson and Bronx who just came back with more food, “is Hudson and Bronx, our pet. Now what is your name?”

            It took her a long while to look at each and every one of the gargoyles as if to register their names into her mind and to finally blurt hers out.

            “Suki.”


	3. Chapter 3

            _She looked around her with curiosity at everyone standing before her. Who are these beings? What kind of creatures are they? They looked somewhat like her, but there is still a big difference between her and them. They were something that she had never encountered before in her entire life. The only oddity she had ever seen so far was herself. Looking at herself in front of the mirror when she became what she had become._

_A monster. A she-devil. A total freak of nature._

_Although that seemed to be quite a distant memory to her now. The only thing she could remember was smashing glasses and broken fragments._

_She was afraid. Afraid of the creatures before her and the place she was in. Afraid of everything that was about her. She had never seen this place before and she had never been with such a strange crowd that looked different besides herself. They didn’t seem dangerous but she feared them all the same. She wasn’t taking any chances. If they ever try to get near her, she swore that she would rip their hearts out._

_Well, except this white-haired creature, though. There was something about him that made her feel very secure when she was beside him. His wing was the most reassuring of all. Somehow she felt safe whenever he was around and have his wing for her to hold on to. That deep and kind voice that came out of his beak-like mouth made her feel like she was beside a knight in shining armour. As long as he was around and his wing ready in her grasp, she knew she would be in good hands._

_She couldn’t help smiling at him._

                                                                                    *

            Elisa didn’t come that night, and they seriously need to do something to find out more about this being who called herself Suki, so Lexington and Broadway volunteered to fly to Elisa’s house or look for her at her work place to bring her here to the clock tower. While waiting, they try to find out more about Suki by themselves.

            “Suki, you don’t have to be afraid,” Brooklyn said for almost the umpteenth time. Suki, with her hand still gripping on his wing, was cowering away from Goliath who was trying to go closer to her so that he could talk to her properly. “Goliath is not going to hurt you. He’s the leader of the clan and he knows what he’s doing. Come on, Suki, stop hiding behind me.”

            “It’s alright, Suki,” Goliath said reassuringly in his deep rumbling voice. “I mean you no harm. I just want to ask where you come from and where do you live so that we can take you home.”

            Suki shook her head and hid again behind Brooklyn. Hudson sighed tiredly.

            “She is like a small child, lad. She is too scared out of her wits and by far too afraid to even speak to people of her own kind.”

            “She sure doesn’t look like of our kind,” Angela said. “Look how different she is to us. Like Lexington said, she’s a hybrid or an experimental subject.”

            “She is not an experimental subject,” Brooklyn said in a hurt tone, laying a hand on hers. He wished deeply that she wasn’t; he had started to show a small liking for this child-like being and could help feeling protective over her. He turned to her and said, “Suki, you gotta tell us who you really are and where you come from. Do you know where do you live?”

            Suki shook her head and replied briefly in non-fluent English, “Suki not remember.”

            “You’re telling us that you don’t know where you live? You don’t even know where your home is?” Goliath asked, surprised.

            Again, Suki shook her head and turned back to Brooklyn, “Not know where. Not remember. Suki not know home. Suki tell Brooklyn only.”

            “OK, OK, we get the point,” Brooklyn replied. A few moments later, Broadway and Lexington came back to the clock tower holding Elisa an arm each. Judging by her usual maroon jacket and her jeans, she was at her work place all right. They lowered her slowly to the ground and she got right down to business.

            “Alright. What seems to be the problem here? Broadway and Lexington here told me something about a gargoyle hybrid appearing at your doorstep or something.”

            “Here she is,” Goliath said as he pointed towards Suki who was hiding behind Brooklyn, obviously terrified at another person who had come to her presence. Elisa walked slowly and cautiously towards her so as not to frighten her any further.

            “It’s alright, girl,” Elisa said as she held out her hand to her.

            “Go on, Suki,” Brooklyn said as he took Suki’s hand and moved her towards Elisa. “That’s Elisa. She’s a detective. She can help you.”

            Tentatively, Suki moved away from Brooklyn’s protective wings and was seated in front of the investigative-looking Elisa Maza. She took her chin and scrutinized her face, checked her arms and legs, looked at her neck for any signs of puncture wounds that could be caused by syringes through experimental testing, opened her mouth to take a look at her fangs, looked at her ears and marveled at her features and clothes from a far speculation. Throughout the inspection, Brooklyn had his hands on her shoulders, assuring her that he wasn’t going anywhere. She then sat back down in front of Suki again.

            “Suki, is ‘Suki’ your real name or do you have other names? Other than Suki? A full name, maybe?”

            “Suki tell Brooklyn only,” Suki put on an indignant face, not wanting to look at her. Elisa could tell from her face that she wouldn’t get what she wants if she didn’t cooperate with her.

            “Alright, tell Brooklyn then.”

            Suki whispered to Brooklyn’s ear. Then Brooklyn told her answer out loud for Elisa to hear, “She said that the name ‘Suki’ is all that she could remember.”

            “OK, then where does she live? Does she remember an address to her home or maybe her work place? Because I can tell from her hands that she used to be a working person. Her hands and also her torn-up office-like clothes had given away her identity slightly.”

            “What? Then that has to mean that she used to be a human!” Broadway exclaimed.

            “We’ve already asked her where she lives,” Goliath replied. “She doesn’t know either.”

            Brooklyn looked at Suki who looked back at him with a lost look on her face. Could she be really an experimental subject or that she had no idea that she could be a Third Race or some kind?

            “What happened to you? Do you remember anything that might tell us how you have turned into this way?” Elisa asked.

            Suki whispered to Brooklyn, who in turn replied, “No. She said she doesn’t remember a thing. She only remembered smashing something and then flying towards this tower, that’s it. She couldn’t remember anything else.”

            “Hmm, a slight amnesia, I see,” Elisa rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Well, I’ll try to investigate about her, but I don’t expect to find anything in a hurry, though, what with the lack of information. Right, duty calls now. I’ll keep you guys posted. What are you going to do with her in the meantime?”

            “We’re not really sure right now,” Angela replied. “We’re still a little overtaken by all this, and we’re pretty new to her situation. Frankly, we don’t know what to do with her. She seemed easily scared.”

            “Maybe I can take her to my home and let her stay with me,” Elisa offered. “I do live alone anyway and since she used to be human, maybe my human lifestyle could trigger her memory a little.”

            “That could be a good idea,” Lexington was the first to agree. He sure didn’t fancy having a being who was jumpy 24/7 and might leap at the slightest sound she hears.

            “Come on, Suki,” Elisa held out her hand to the slightly relaxed being. “Do you want to come over and stay in my house for the time being?”

            Immediately, she stood up abruptly and ran behind Brooklyn, gripping his wings and growled. She shook her head a little and said, “No! Suki not go! Suki stay!”

            “It’s alright, Suki. Maybe there’s something in my house that could help you remember…”

            “Suki not go! Suki stay!” Suki shook her head again, repeating herself indignantly. “Suki want stay with Brooklyn! Brooklyn, Suki stay with Brooklyn, yes? Suki stay, yes? With Brooklyn, yes?”

            “I, uh, I don’t know…” Brooklyn was quite taken aback by this sudden gesture and reaction by someone he only just met for a couple of nights.

            “Suki want stay with Brooklyn…yes? Suki stay with Brooklyn, yes?” Suki pleaded, gazing into Brooklyn’s eyes with her dark purple eyes. Everyone who was present chuckled and sniggered at the sight of this, including Goliath who smirked a little. Brooklyn glared venomously at his brothers Broadway and Lexington who were giving him the ‘sly eye’.

            “It seems that your new friend here trusts you deeply, Brooklyn,” Goliath commented. “Why don’t you just agree with her? We do not mind another member in our clan, although she was human.”

            “Aye, lad,” Hudson agreed. “The more the merrier, as they say.”

            Brooklyn finally let out a big sigh of defeat as he said, “Alright, alright, Suki. You…You can stay with me.”

            “Thank you! Thank you! Suki like Brooklyn!” Suki beamed as she hugged the white-haired, clay-skinned gargoyle from the back. This time, Broadway and Lexington really guffawed and rolled on the floor with laughter at the sight of this. If Brooklyn’s skin wasn’t the colour tone of clay, you could’ve sworn you saw him blush.

            “Alright then, if that’s what she wants, it’s fine with me,” Elisa said as she tried to hide a smile. “I’d better be going then, or else my partner might be wondering who kidnapped me.” And as she passed by Goliath, she ran one of her hands onto Goliath’s big one and gave him a seductive sideways look, which sent Goliath into smiles.

            “So, uh, what are we gonna do with her now?” Broadway turned to Goliath after recovering from his fits of laughter.

            “I suppose we can always make her feel like home and stop her from being so scared of us,” Goliath replied, rubbing his chin and contemplating.

            “Yeah, but how are we going to do that? She leaps at every sound we make and the only person she trusts is our lover boy Brooklyn,” Lexington started with a doubt look on his face first, then snorted when he said the word ‘lover boy’.

            “Aye, you can always try by making friends with the poor lass,” Hudson suggested. At that word, Bronx bounded off first towards Suki who, as expected, cowered away from it. Bronx whined and tried to be friendly with Suki. Brooklyn, with his kind voice, knelt down beside Bronx and guided her down too. He petted Bronx and coaxed her to do the same. She was afraid at first, but then slowly she did pet Bronx, and Bronx licked her hand with joy. Suki giggled and petted Bronx some more, looking a little more relaxed now. Lexington, Angela and Broadway took that opportunity to come close to Suki and introduce themselves again to her. With Brooklyn as her protection, she finally smiled and said hi to each of them.

            “See, Suki?” Brooklyn turned to her. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”

            Suki giggled and shook her head.

            “Let’s take her out and show her around Manhattan,” Lexington suggested. “Since she’s having amnesia, like Elisa said, we might as well have a head-start on helping her remember.”

            “Yeah, we can take her to watch a movie, see the casinos, swoop around the city…” Broadway began to list all the things they could do for tonight.

            “So, Suki, do you want to come along with us to see Manhattan?” Brooklyn asked the purple-eyed hybrid.

            “Brooklyn go too?” Suki asked him back.

            “Yes, I’ll be going too, don’t worry.”

            “Brooklyn go, I go.”

            Soon the trio, together with Angela holding Broadway’s hand and Suki holding on Brooklyn’s arm, jumped off the clock tower and were soon gliding through the air on another of their night adventures.


	4. Chapter 4

            _She was back in the starry night skies again. She remembered last night when she was on air trying to find a place of sanctuary for herself and got herself landing on the clock tower._

_She had found her sanctuary and he is right in her arms._ _Brooklyn_ _._ _Her knight in shining armour. He is her sanctuary and her solace. She didn’t know why she trusted him so much, but she didn’t care anyway. As long as he was by her side, she feared nothing, not even the strange friends who were with him. He will protect her from harm’s way, she was sure of it. He offering his wing for her to hold and he letting her hide behind his back whenever she was afraid was proof that he will be there for her whenever she needed him._

_Somehow she had a feeling that she had trusted_ _Brooklyn_ _so much for a certain reason. She had a feeling that she came to that clock tower for a reason too. Not to belong with the strange beings, of course, but something else. Something much more important than that. But what? To be with_ _Brooklyn_ _?_ _Maybe. She just can’t put a finger to it. She just can’t remember. It felt as if there was a missing piece from the jigsaw puzzle of her brain and she just simply can’t find it._

_Not that it really matters anyway._

_Brooklyn_ _is with her, that’s all that matters._

                                                                                    *

            “We gotta get her some decent clothes first. Hers is practically torn apart.”

            The gang of gargoyles and Suki were on the top floor of the bank and were looking down at a busy road where cars come and go without stopping. Opposite them was a row of shops, one of them being a costume shop where a whole line of costumes were lined around to be displayed to the customers for their choosing.

            “Maybe that costume shop would give her something suitable to wear,” Broadway pointed at the costume shop. “Let’s go and see if there’s anything nice for her.”

            “Uh, note to Broadway,” Lexington poked at Broadway’s shoulder. “Look what we are! We stick out like a sore thumb, and Suki is _way_ too petrified to go anywhere!”

            “Too petrified to go anywhere _without_ Brooklyn, that is,” Angela corrected, grinning from ear to ear.

            “It’s a costume shop, remember?” Broadway said as he pointed at the shop sign bearing ‘Samantha’s Costume Frenzy’. “We can always say that we’re going on a costume party and needed something to spice up our ‘costume’.”

            “Great idea!” Brooklyn put out a thumbs-up and turned to Suki who was still wrapping her arms around his arm. “Suki, we are going to go to that shop and get you new clothes. How’s that sound?”

            “Danger? Place is danger?” Suki asked, her face worried.

            “No, it’s not dangerous. It’s perfectly safe. We just wanna get you some new clothes.”

            “Brooklyn go?” Suki asked, still worried.

            “Yes, I’m going,” Brooklyn sighed tiredly, much to the other gargoyles’ amusement.

            Soon they all swooped down from the bank towards the shop entrance and entered. As planned, they used the costume party excuse and the gullible shopkeeper fell for it. She recommended a number of gargoyle clothes for Suki to wear but she didn’t really find it nice. That is until she saw a set of pink outfit right at the very last corner of the shop. She tugged at Brooklyn’s wing and pointed at the outfit there.

            “Suki want that! Suki want that!” Suki said excitedly.

            “I’m sorry, miss,” the shopkeeper said. “That gargoyle outfit is reserved for a very important customer. You can’t take that. What about other kind of outfits?”

            “Sorry, Suki,” Brooklyn shook his head at Suki who was pointing at the outfit. “It belongs to someone else. We can’t take that. Do you want something else that might be nicer?”

            Suki shook her head and kept pointing at that outfit, “Suki want that! Suki want wear that!”

            “There’s gotta be something else you like,” Broadway said, taking one outfit to another and showed it to her. “How about this one? This one looks good. Or this one, it’s not so bad, come on.”

            “No, Suki no like! Suki want that. Suki like that.”

            “But it belongs to someone else. You can’t take someone else’s clothes,” Lexington tried to reason with her.

            Suki stopped pressing on. She looked down disappointedly and kept quiet. Angela smiled kindly and gave her a canvas-coloured outfit for her. She took it without a word, but her face still looked disappointed and sad. Somehow Brooklyn’s heart ached just to see her sad like that. He walked towards the pink outfit and turned determinedly to the shopkeeper.

            “We’re taking this outfit. How much does it cost?”

            “I’m sorry, young man,” the shopkeeper looked slightly annoyed. “That outfit is taken. My customer would flip if I sell it to you without her permission.”

            “You’re the boss. You can improvise. We’re taking this outfit and we’re willing to pay double for it,” Brooklyn said as he took out his pouch. He had that money after he had helped an old lady retrieve her purse from a mob (thankfully the old lady was too blind and the streets was dark for her to see Brooklyn properly) and judging by him taking out the money, he meant business. The shopkeeper gave it a thought before doubling the price of the outfit. Brooklyn paid it and smiled as he held up the pink outfit for Suki. Suki smiled and took the outfit into the changing room to change.

            When she came out, the gargoyles were surprised to see that she was actually wearing an exact outfit of Demona, only that it is in pink. It was undeniable—it looked exactly like Demona’s loincloth and half-a-sleeve baby-T. She stood in front of Brooklyn and asked, “Suki nice in clothes? Nice?”

            “I…I…uh…” Brooklyn didn’t know what to say. He was staring at her with such awe he’d probably pop his eyes out.

            “Suki nice?” Suki asked again, hoping that he approved her.

            “Uh, yeah. Yeah, you look smashing in it,” Brooklyn finally answered. Suki beamed and held onto Brooklyn’s wing.

            “Excellent choice, miss,” the shopkeeper said as she escorted everyone out of the shop. The gargoyles looked around to see if anyone was looking before they climbed onto the roof of the shop and glided away with the wind. Suki seemed like she enjoyed her pink Demona style outfit—she was admiring it and giggling happily in Brooklyn’s arms.

            “You know, you’re beginning to spoil her,” Lexington said with a grin.

            Brooklyn didn’t reply. He was slightly confused right now. She was a total stranger to him yet she acted as if she had known him for a long time. He didn’t know what he had done to deserve such trust from a total stranger like her. She was like a small child and he had unofficially become her baby-sitter trying to show her the big world. And just now, he saw her wearing an outfit which was just exactly like Demona’s style. Her outfit truly reminded him of Demona who had made him turn against his clan and betray Goliath, and he should have loathe her wearing that and demand her to change it—after all, she would listen to him; she trusted him. But somehow, he couldn’t tell her to change. He just couldn’t. Deep down inside him, he felt that Suki in her new outfit was actually…beautiful. So beautiful, like an ugly grey swanling turned into a majestic white swan. He was speechless. He didn’t expect this being who was wild and snarling, snapping at everyone in sight just a few moments ago would become so beautiful now.

            “Where we go, Brooklyn?” Suki’s voice snapped him back to reality. He wasn’t sure. He turned to his brothers.

            “I know just the place to be,” Lexington replied as he took the lead.

                                                                                    *

            Elisa ran through the computer list feverishly. She remembered seeing the office-like attire Suki wore somewhere before and was now going through the records of a company by the name ‘TECHTRO INDUSTRIES’, courtesy from her partner who got her that information through a warrant search. She found the section on ‘STAFF MEMBERS’ and clicked on that icon.

            Soon a whole list of names came onto the screen. Her eyes ran through the list, separating the local ones and tried to find any names that sounded like a foreigner’s name. She had a few foreign names but when she looked at their pictures, none of them matched Suki’s face. Finally, at the biochemical department, she found one name which was foreign: Yusuki Hamasaki. She opened her file and read her details and stuff. Finally she clicked on the icon which had her photo and lo and behold! She had a picture on the file that looked exactly like their Suki, only that her eyes were dark brown instead of those seriously deep and dark purple eyes.

            “Hello, Suki,” Elisa said to herself, smiling in satisfaction as she printed the information out.


	5. Chapter 5

            _She was quite overwhelmed by the loud blasting music at first. How could anyone stand listening to this kind of music and scream their lungs out without fearing that they would lose their hearing and their voices? She was even taken aback by the people who were playing the music: such shouting colours on their clothes, such weird attire, such weird hairstyle, such oddity before._

_Now she stared at_ _Brooklyn_ _and the other gargoyles who were with them. They seemed to enjoy the music as much as the screaming people down there. The ones called Broadway and_ _Lexington_ _were actually moving their bodies to the beat of the song. The one named Angela was also moving her body to the beat of this outrageous loud music._ _Brooklyn_ _was even more outrageous—he was actually making guitar movements with his hands whenever that man in the guitar played his tune and blasting throughout the whole place._

_Suddenly she saw Broadway standing up and held out his hand to Angela. She smiled and took it. As she continued to watch, she noticed that Broadway was actually dancing with Angela happily to the music. They looked like they were having so much fun._ _Lexington_ _soon joined the fun and danced, cutting in occasionally and dancing with Angela. She smiled. She hoped she could have that much fun too._

_That was when_ _Brooklyn_ _held out his hand to her and smiled at her._

                                                                                                *

            The trio, Angela and Suki were in the grand stadium where the latest craze band called ‘The Headhunters’ were performing their concert at the Stadium of Manhattan. Lexington told them that they were having a premiere tonight and he would love him and the gang experienced it first hand. They all climbed onto the top part of the stadium where all the lightings were managed and sat there to enjoy this free music.

            Suki didn’t start out liking the music at first. As soon as she heard the blasting noises, she almost went frantic and thought they were under attack or something. She struggled to get away from it all and go back to the lesser noise of the busy streets of Manhattan but Brooklyn tried to calm her down, telling her that there was no harm in here. To prove it to her, he let go off Suki’s hand and walked on the pathway of the lightings and stood there, coaxing her to come near. At first she was hesitant to go, but she couldn’t bear to be away from the protection and the security of Brooklyn’s wing, so slowly she inched her way towards Brooklyn. Brooklyn kept backing away until he had joined his fellow gargoyles who were just feet away above the audience’s heads, egging Suki on to come closer to him. As soon as she could feel her fingers touching Brooklyn’s wing, she grasped on it tightly and held it on for her dear life before she realized that she was actually with the gang above the audience.

            The gargoyles were definitely enjoying their music, judging by the way they moved to the beat and even sang along with it to their hearts’ content. Suki didn’t move an inch from her spot; she still didn’t like the music and the loud noises around her. Then Broadway suddenly stood up and was beginning to dance, holding his hand out to Angela.

            “Come on! Let’s dance!” Broadway tried to outwit the loud music by yelling.

            “You don’t know how to dance!” Angela yelled back, laughing.

            “It wouldn’t hurt to try! Come on!”

            Angela smiled and took his hands, dancing to the beat. Lexington joined in, cutting in once in a while. Brooklyn continued to do his guitar stunt as The Headhunters below sang their next number. It was still a loud song, but it sounded much slower. Brooklyn finally stood up and held out his hand to Suki.

            “Come on, Suki. You wanna dance?”

            “Huh? Suki no dance. Suki not know.”

            “It’s OK, I can teach you,” Brooklyn smiled, taking her hand and standing her up. “Come on, it’s very easy.”

            “Brooklyn teach Suki dance?” Suki asked, moving tentatively towards the beat Brooklyn was leading her.

            “Yeah, I’m teaching you to dance. It’s very easy. It’s OK, I’m right here. Come on, just move with me.”

            And so she did. With her eyes looking at Brooklyn’s moving feet, she danced to the beat and listened to his kind voice guiding her as she took her steps slowly. She stepped on his feet a few times at first but soon she got the hang of it. In fact she got the hang of it pretty fast that she was actually moving to the beat much easier than she was when she was petrified at everything. She even got a little lot better than Brooklyn. Brooklyn stared in awe at the way her nimble body danced agilely to the song and moving perfectly in tune. Broadway and Lexington cheered at her and Angela laughed happily at how accustomed to life in Manhattan so far.

            “Suki! You’re actually dancing! You tricked me, didn’t you? You already know how to dance!” Brooklyn laughed nervously at what he saw before him.

            “Suki not know!” Suki denied at first, then admitted timidly, “Suki maybe know. Suki think…Suki remember how to dance. Suki not know first, but now Suki know.”

            “You mean you remembered how to dance? You used to dance before?” Brooklyn asked in surprise.

            “Maybe. Suki not sure. Suki…not know…”

            Broadway, Lexington and Angela were too engrossed in their enjoyment dancing to the beat, but unbeknownst to them, deep down inside this white-haired gargoyle’s heart, he couldn’t help feeling slightly hurt. Hurt and afraid because if he and the gang continues to let her tour down Manhattan’s walk of life, she would start remembering everything and might start wanting to leave the clan and find a cure.

            Just like what Maggie Reed did.

            He wanted so much for her not to remember.

                                                                                                *

            “What was her name again, lass?”

            Elisa has printed out the information on Suki she got from the Techtro Industries files and was now in the clock tower sowing Goliath and Hudson the prints. Bronx sniffed at them for a second and sneezed. Elisa chuckled.

            “Sorry, Bronx. I ran out of paper and had to use these scented ones. Her name is Yusuki Hamasaki, a member at the biochemical department of Techtro Industries. Techtro Industries is one of the largest well-known industrial companies that manufactures and sells medicinal products. The biochemical department is where the medicines are created and tested out.”

            “So this has to mean that Suki was human,” Goliath rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “and she has to be one of the members of this biochemical (this word he pronounced it a little slowly) department to work on all human medicinal cures.”

            “Exactly,” Elisa replied. “She was the youngest, most talented member there is. Her records shows that she has finished college—her highest education—in the study of Biochemistry and Science when she was only 13 years old, and a year after finishing college, she was immediately given a job offer at Techtro Industries. She exceeded all expectations of the industry and can produce quality medicines for us all, and still have time to go out on clubbing nights with friends!”

            “That explains why she looked so young,” Goliath remembered the teenage look on her face.

            “She’s an all-rounder, a genius, a girl every other girl wants to be,” Elisa said in leveled admiration. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I see a whole rack of trophies and awards in her room for outstanding performances or gotten from any science contest or science convention.”

            “But what could have happened to that child to turn her into such oddity?” Hudson asked. “If she was human, there is no way she could’ve turned into a gargoyle just like that, and I’m sure it is not the work of sorcery.”

            “I agree, Hudson,” Goliath nodded his head. “There is no inkling whatsoever that could connect her to sorcery. She has to be some poor experimental subject. Xanatos, perhaps?”

            “I wish,” Elisa rolled her eyes. “As soon as I found out about Suki’s background, I did a slight investigation on Xanatos first thing. Or, to be more honest, I did a little interrogation on Owen, his faithful secretary. This time he’s clean.”

            “Then it has to be something to do with the place she was working in. There cannot be any other explanation if even our main suspect is out of the list,” Goliath said, quite befuddled about Xanatos actually having nothing to do with Suki’s weird physical nature.

            “I thought so too, so my partner and I went over to the Techtro Industries to check it out. Turned out that there had been a robbery attempt by some drug addicts and somehow it must have scared the hell out of our Suki here because she stopped coming to work the next day.”

            “‘Tis not surprising for her to be afraid,” Hudson replied. “That poor lass is already as jumpy as a goat kid who lost its mother.”

            “I’ll say,” Elisa grinned, remembering the way she clung onto Brooklyn’s wing and hid behind his back like her life depended on him. “After the robbery incident, the members of the biochemical department hadn’t seen her since. She stopped coming to work and wouldn’t answer their calls. She left no resignation letter, no form of indication that she was quitting the job. When they finally resorted to go to her house to find her, she wasn’t there. Gone without a trace. It was as if she had disappeared from the face of the earth. Well, I guess we’ve found their missing piece of the company’s puzzle.”

            “But if she is a gifted child of intelligence,” Goliath noted, “shouldn’t she be speaking in a more proper language? She speaks as if she had never spoken English before.”

            “Well, that _is_ a mystery though,” Elisa admitted. “It could be the trauma that triggered her to forget certain grammars in her language, or it could be that transformation that has blocked out some of her intelligence. Whatever it is, I think our biochemical department has just lost their brightest star. That I’ll have to investigate even further.”

            “Then at the meantime, we can inform Suki about this new information and then…” Goliath’s words were stopped by Elisa shaking her head.

            “I wouldn’t advise that yet. She had only just grown accustomed to your clan and is still trying to adjust to her new self and her new way of life. I wouldn’t want to burden her mind any further. Give her some time and give _me_ more time to investigate more on Suki before we start jumping into conclusions.”

            Goliath nodded and replied, “You’re right, Elisa. She must not be burdened. We’ll have to take our time.” When Elisa was about to leave, he stopped her at her feet and said, “Uh, Elisa. I was wondering about the upcoming Halloween night. Uh, well, since Halloween is about 2 nights away, I was thinking maybe…well, maybe we could…you know…”

            Elisa smiled softly and laid a hand on Goliath’s strong arm, saying, “I understand, Goliath, and I’m honoured to be walking in the streets again with you, without worrying about any crimes in Manhattan again, that is. So, I’ll be seeing you around.”

            Before she left, she did that hand stroke again on Goliath’s hand, sending him into another all smiles. Somehow, he loved it when she did that. It was like some sort of a romantic ritual between them whenever she wanted to leave. A few moments later, the gang of teenage gargoyles came back. Goliath and Hudson went out of the tower to see them and were quite surprised to see Suki in her new outfit.

            “I see you have been doing a little…shopping in the lands of Manhattan,” Goliath said as his eyes trailed up and down Suki’s new Demona-style outfit. Bronx walked over towards her and purred, asking for a pet on the head. Suki giggled and did as he wanted him.

            “Yeah, isn’t she a beauty?” Brooklyn replied, admiring her from afar. Broadway and the rest were laughing with her and were talking excitedly about The Headhunters whose concert they just went to. Suki seemed like she had finally got acquainted with the gargoyles around her and Brooklyn could finally be at a distance from her for a while.

            “She is quite a marvel to look at,” Goliath agreed before switching to a solemn face. “But as much as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you shouldn’t be too attached to that beauty, for she will one day be out of your sight.”

            “Goliath…?” Brooklyn looked at his eldest brother questioningly. He could tell from the poetic tone that he was trying to tell him something he wished he would never hear.

            “Elisa has some information about Suki, and until she has gathered more evidence to confirm this information, she will refrain from revealing it to Suki. Until then, she will remain with us. But you must remember that during these times, Suki is still prone to relapses and memory returns and will soon leave the clan to live a life of her own.”

            “But, Goliath, I…”

            “Goliath is right, lad,” Hudson agreed. “She had a life of her own and she has the right to choose which life to live. And you can’t stop the lass from remembering her past. You have no control of that.”

            Brooklyn looked at Suki with a hurt feeling as she, on the other hand, was doing the guitar stunt Brooklyn just did and the others were laughing like crazy at the way she imitated Brooklyn. If she remembers, she might leave the clan. She said she liked him and he was sure that she really meant it, because he, too, was beginning to like and feel a deep connection towards her and her wellbeing. He felt more than just protective towards her. He felt…like…

            “I know you feel a certain attachment towards Suki,” Goliath said, putting his hand on his shoulder. “But you must also learn how to let go and know when to let go.”

            “Yeah…Yeah, I understand…” Brooklyn’s voice trailed away as he continued to stare at Suki.

            His Suki.


	6. Chapter 6

            _She liked it here. She simply loved the life of the gargoyles. No worries, no possibilities, no boundaries, no rules, no nothing. Just her and her knight in shining armour_ _Brooklyn_ _. She felt as if she really belonged to the gargoyles about her. She did have an inkling of living in another type of life, but she couldn’t recall what that life was. Maybe the life like that detective woman Elisa lived, maybe not. She wasn’t sure but she was definitely not going to stress her mind thinking about what it was._

_She liked Broadway and his girlfriend Angela. He was a nice guy who is often willing to share his food with her and introduce her to great-tasting morsels and delicious drinks. And Angela was very kind to offer with any help she could offer._ _Lexington_ _was an interesting character too. He had this intelligent look despite the fact that he was youngest of all the gargoyles and likes to mess with things that looked complicated and mechanical. He had tried to introduce her to those things but so far, she was only interested at the videogame._

_The leader, Goliath, was a nice guy too. Nice but firm. He seemed like the kind who always calls the shots. Even the elder, Hudson, respects his decision and often lenient to whatever decision he makes. And_ _Bronx_ _is simply adorable! She couldn’t help liking him now that she wasn’t so scared of him._

_Perhaps the best gargoyle among the clan was still_ _Brooklyn_ _. He was there when she was scared. He was there to give her reassurance when doubt came to her heart. He was there to guide her and teach her anything she needed to know. He was the one who rid her of all her fears when everything around her seemed like a threat. He was there to catch her whenever she fell. He was everything to her. She couldn’t bear to part with him._

_After the concert, she had observed each and every one of the gargoyles that were around her and the one that was with her and finally come to this conclusion: All she had was the gargoyles, and that’s all she wanted._

_And most importantly, all she wanted was_ _Brooklyn_ _to be by her side._

_Forever._

                                                                        *

            It was almost near Halloween. Elisa slowly woke up from her slumber at the sound of her alarm clock and moved slowly towards her wardrobe. She opened it and saw her dress perfectly hung on the hanger ready for Halloween night’s celebration. She smiled as she remembered Goliath inviting her for the Halloween night. The last time she and Goliath walked down the streets openly she wore the ball dress Belle wore in ‘Beauty & the Beast’, so this time she was going to wear the dress Elizabeth from ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ wore during the almost-execution of Jack Sparrow.

            Her eyes shifted to the scented paper on Suki she had left on her dresser before plopping onto the bed tiredly last night. She picked it up and looked through the file again. She took a look at the picture that went with it, and found it hard to believe that this intelligent-looking child prodigy would now be a timid, scared, child-like and wild-looking savage. Her eyes were one thing that had an obvious change though. In the picture her eyes were the normal Asian dark-brown but the Suki right now was having a set of the darkest purple eyes you could ever imagine. That is something you won’t be able to change overnight unless you’re talking about coloured contact lenses.

            Elisa decided to get started on the investigation if she wanted to get any answers about what actually happened to Suki that made her experience such a dramatic change. Quickly, she changed into her work clothes and left her apartment in a jiffy. Her first stop was to her own abandoned home. She followed the address written on the printed paper and soon found herself and the car in front of a tall and very exclusive-looking condominium. She walked in and flashed her badge at the security guard, stating her business. The security guard led her to the lift and told the lift attendant to take them to the middle of the building, which is on the 10th floor.

            As soon as they reached the 10th floor, the guard took her to a door that bore the numbers J365 and unlocked the door, letting the detective in. Elisa looked around and saw that the place was quite a mess. The curtains were drawn, so she opened them to let the light and see the whole place more clearly.

            “That little girl hadn’t been coming home for a long time now,” the guard said. “She’s really a nice person and she always greets me every time she enters the building. Since she had been away for so long, the landlord thought that maybe she had found another place to live and he automatically terminated her accommodation contract deal. The problem now is to get someone to clean up this mess and find new people to buy or rent this place. Personally I think this place has some sort of eerie atmosphere that no one would be able to stand. I myself have been getting the chills too every time I come here to check on things.”

            “I know what you mean,” Elisa said, shivering a little. She didn’t find the place too friendly either.

            “Is there anything else I can do to help you, detective?” the guard asked.

            “No, thanks. I’ll take it from here. I’ll holler if I need anything.”

            “Alright. All the doors here are locked after the termination of her contract, so you might need the keys,” the guard said as he gave her the keys to the house before leaving Elisa alone to do her job. Elisa put on a pair of plastic gloves as a standard search procedure. She started with the kitchen as it was the nearest. Elisa unlocked the door and was shocked to see the place filthy and totally trashed. Judging by all the uneaten food like the spilt milk carton, the broken eggs, the mouldy bread and the half-full biscuit tin scattered everywhere, Elisa could only assume that Suki did this as an act of bestial rage. The food was beginning to smell and attract cockroaches and ants. Elisa wrinkled her nose; when exactly _are_ they going to get the cleaners to come and tidy this place up?

            She moved out of the kitchen, locking the door on her way out, and started inspecting other places. The dining room was in quite a ship-shape condition, only that there were a few broken chairs. The living room wasn’t a sight for sore eyes though as the sofas have been ripped and almost emptied of its cotton. The TV was smashed onto the floor, the table covered with rags and old newspapers and unwanted rubbish and there was also a photo frame which was crashed of its glass. Elisa picked up the photo frame to see Suki in her graduation clothes posing with a group of graduate friends. Everyone looked older and more mature than her; she was the odd one out.

            Our detective then noticed the three bedrooms and moved towards the master bedroom, unlocking the door. The bedroom, as she peeked in, was also as appalling as the outside. The bed sheets were everywhere—well, pieces of them, that is. The pillow case and the blanket were totally mauled and feathers were all over the place. The wardrobe and the dressing table didn’t look too good either—the clothes were practically torn beyond recognition and the mirror was smashed. Elisa picked up the shards of mirror and thought, ‘Looks like 7 years of bad luck ahead of you, Suki.’

            One of the other two minor bedrooms and the bathroom were pretty much in good shape. That bedroom was smaller and was used as a storeroom. But it didn’t surprise her more than it did when she entered the other bigger bedroom.

            Suki had made this bedroom into her own personal laboratory. There were more smashed glass everywhere and Elisa noticed that they were bits and pieces of test tubes, syringes, a lab thermometer, measuring jars and cone jars, glass rods and white clay bowls. There were also Bunsen burners that were bent in half and a lot of scientific equipment practically demolished into smithereens. She was so engrossed in looking at all those shattered scientific equipment that she didn’t realize that the bigger surprise was at the end of the room. When she looked up to see it, she was even more taken aback.

            It was a library of books, some of them scattered on the floor and some were torn to pieces. Elisa bent down to see what were the books about and saw that they were facts and information and the science of bats. There were other books that talked about the legendary gargoyles and their origins. In those books there were pictures of stone gargoyles and gargoyles in flesh, and there were a whole lot of myths and legends that were all focused on bats and gargoyles. In fact, the whole library of books was dedicated to these night creatures. There is also a book where it shows the anatomy of bats and its complex DNA that could be connected to humans. There was a shredded notebook written in, probably, Suki’s handwriting were she scribbled notes on her experiments and her study on both the gargoyles and the bats. Come to think of it, Elisa did think she saw a few mutilated bats on the floor among the shards of glass.

            Suddenly, something caught her eye. It was a small metal case hidden just below the gap of one of the bookshelves. She took out the metal case and inspected it. It wasn’t padlocked or anything, so she was lucky to be able to open it without any fuss. As she opened it, she saw stacks of negatives and a whole lot of pictures. One by one, she took out the pictures and looked into them, hoping that Suki would forgive her for sneaking on her private stuff.

            When she saw who the main character in her pictures was, she finally understood what her fuss was all about.

                                                                                                *

            The sun was high in the sky as Elisa came to the clock tower. She had expected the gargoyles to be in their stone form, and that might include Suki. But once she got there, she was surprised to see that Suki wasn’t in stone form at all. In fact she was still flesh and blood all the way. She was sleeping soundly on Brooklyn’s lap, who is now in stone form, her hand holding tightly on Brooklyn’s wing. Elisa walked towards Suki and shook her lightly, trying to wake her up, but no matter how she shook and called, Suki just wouldn’t wake up. At first, she thought Suki was dead but when she checked her breathing, she was a-OK.

            Elisa was amazed. Suki was like in a deep sleep and unable to wake up. She was just like a bat: sleeping during the day and waking up at night. She tried her luck again but still she didn’t wake up. It was confirmed—she wasn’t going to wake up until the sun sets.

            ‘At least let her sleep on a decent bed. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt if I took her home to my bed just this once,’ Elisa thought as she pried Suki’s hand away from Brooklyn’s wing. She was quite a light girl, so Elisa was able to carry her in her arms. She scribbled a note and left it on Brooklyn’s lap before taking Suki out of the tower and into her car.


	7. Chapter 7

_She found herself standing on top of a skyscraper gazing down at the city of_ _Manhattan_ _below her. She felt as if she was the Queen of the world, ruling over the people before her while she stood on her magnificent throne. The moon high up in the sly was a true sight to behold. It was as if she had lived for this moment for a long time._

_Brooklyn_ _came from a distance and flew to her side. He had in his hand a bouquet of roses a mixture of red and white. It was lovely. But the loveliest of all was the look on_ _Brooklyn_ _’s face when he handed the flowers to her. He looked so gallant, so fine, so much like…he was in love with her as much as she was with him. She took the flower and kissed_ _Brooklyn_ _’s beak. He, in turn, took her in his arms and hugged her close to his chest, wrapping his huge protective wings around her. They both looked like nightly silhouettes under the bright full moon._

_“_ _Brooklyn_ _like Suki?” she asked as she looked up her beau._

_“Always, Suki, and forever more,”_ _Brooklyn_ _replied, gazing deep into her purple eyes. She smiled and hugged him back. Nothing could be more blissful than this. She wished she’d never have to leave him ever. Nothing could tear them apart, not even the wrath of heaven and hell itself._

_That was when she opened her eyes and saw Elisa before her._

                                                                                                *

            The sun was slowly setting. It’s time for our gargoyles to wake up. One by one cracking sounds were heard and stones fragments fell from the clock tower, followed by roar-like yawns. Brooklyn rubbed the sleep off his eyes and muttered, “Hey, Suki. Rise and shine. Let’s go hang out at Manhattan again. Suki?”

            Suki, to his shock, wasn’t there. He remembered her laying her head on his lap and grasping his wing tight before he turned into stone. Now she wasn’t there. She was practically gone without a trace. Brooklyn began to worry. He stood up abruptly and started searching frantically.

            “Suki? Suki, where are you? Suki, it’s not funny! I’m not in a mood for hide-and-seek! Suki, where are you?? Suki! SUKI~!!”

            “What is it, Brooklyn? What’s all the racket about?” Lexington asked as he entered the tower to see Brooklyn in an anxious, lost puppy state. The rest of the clan also went in to see what was going on.

            “Suki’s gone! She’s not here! She’s disappeared!” Brooklyn replied worriedly.

            “What?” Broadway exclaimed. “I thought she was sleeping with you last dawn!”

            “She was…but now she’s not! She’s gone! Where could she be?”

            “Maybe this letter might tell us something,” Lexington said as he picked up the piece of paper that slipped off Brooklyn’s lap when he got up to look for Suki. “It’s from Elisa. It says:

* * *

 

            ‘ ** _Dear_** ** _Brooklyn_** ** _,_**

**** _I came here just now to check out and see if you’re alright and in good condition and I couldn’t help noticing that Suki didn’t turn to stone just like the rest of you when she slept. I fear that she would be harmed if I just leave her here unattended, so I took her home to sleep at my home instead. I’ll bring her back by tonight, don’t worry._

_**Your friend, Elisa**_ ’

* * *

 

            “What? Elisa has taken Suki home??” Brooklyn was shocked. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing! I gotta go get Suki back!”

            “Calm down, Brooklyn,” Broadway tried to stop his brother from jumping off the tower. “Elisa did say that she had taken Suki home to sleep more comfortably. That sounds like a very safe thing to do. Besides, she did promise that she would return Suki back tonight.”

            “Yeah. Why do you have to worry?” Lexington asked. “She with Elisa, and that means she’s in good hands. Don’t you trust Elisa in taking care of your girlfriend?”

            “No. To be honest, I don’t,” Brooklyn replied straightforwardly. “She doesn’t know Suki like I do. She’ll flip when she realizes that she is not with me and not among us. She’ll be so scared that she might do something unimaginable! I’m the only one that she trusts, and I’m the only one that can keep her in control! Elisa doesn’t know that! She doesn’t know what she’s doing at all!”

            “Brooklyn may be right,” Goliath said. “Elisa is still too new to Suki’s condition, and Suki is still vulnerable to the outside world, given her state of mind. She felt safer with us than alone, and if she realizes she is not among the clan, who knows what damage she might cause. Hudson, you and Bronx stay here just in case Elisa does come here with Suki. Brooklyn, you and I will go to Elisa’s house. Broadway, Lexington and Angela, you scout over Manhattan, just in case.”

            Everyone nodded at his orders. They all jumped off the tower, except Hudson and Bronx, and split up—Brooklyn and Goliath glided down towards Elisa’s apartment while the rest swooped to another direction and kept on a lookout to see if Suki might be hanging out alone at the streets of Manhattan. It was a good thing that Elisa lived on the highest floor for Brooklyn and Goliath to be able to slip into her house through the big window on the roof. The first thing they saw was that the window was actually smashed and the shards of glass were outside Elisa’s house, which means something was breaking out instead of breaking in.

            When they entered her home, they were in for an unsightly condition. The whole place was trashed from top to bottom, as if Elisa was being viciously ransacked. The living room was a mess, like a tornado just moved in. Goliath searched for Elisa and found her hiding in the bathroom, looking relieved to see the duo.

            “Elisa, are you alright?” Goliath asked.

            “I’m OK. Just a little shook up, that’s all,” Elisa replied as she came out of the bathroom and whistled at the mess in the living room and her bedroom. “Looks like I’m gonna be spending extra on new furniture this month.”

            “Where’s Suki? Where is she?” Brooklyn demanded, looking all around for his little hybrid girlfriend.

            “Sorry, Brooklyn,” Elisa replied apologetically. “My bad. I thought she would be more comfortable and safer here than up in the tower where she’s vulnerable to other people’s eyes. Did you know that she doesn’t turn into stone like you guys? She just falls into a deep sleep and her body becomes a timer to wake her up when the sun sets. If anyone sees her like that, she’ll bring more attention than you guys in your stone form…”

            “I don’t care about that!” Brooklyn groaned exasperatedly. “I just wanna know where Suki is! She’s not with you, isn’t she?”

            “Sorry,” Elisa put her hands together as a sign of apology. “When she woke up, the first thing she asked me was where you are. I told her that she was in my house and away from the tower and I promised her that I would take her back there to be with you…But somehow…she went berserk. She ran all over the place and started crashing and trashing the place down, demanding for you and looking for you everywhere. I hid in the bathroom because she was becoming too vicious for words. The last thing I heard was the window smashing. I guess she’s split. You just missed her.”

            “Oh no!” Brooklyn looked out of the window in horror. “She’s out there without protection, without help, without me! She’ll die out there! I gotta go look for her! She needs me!”

            Before Goliath could stop him, he had already climbed out of the window and jumped off the building, gliding off into the night sky and towards the city of Manhattan. Goliath sighed and turned to Elisa, “Are you sure you’re alright, Elisa?”

            “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll need to clean up this place though. What a mess,” Elisa looked at her trashed living room in a horrified kind of awe.

            “I’m sorry that Suki had caused you trouble.”

            “Don’t worry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought her here. I should’ve known better than try to make my own judgments. Brooklyn’s right; she really needs him.”

                                                                                                *

            Broadway, Lexington and Angela scouted the area to look for any signs of their hybrid friend Suki. They’ve looked everywhere possible for a petrified confused half-being could be—the secluded corners, the roofs of abandoned houses and buildings, dirty streets and even at dumpster, but she was nowhere to be found. They met back at the cinema roof an hour later.

            “Any luck, Broadway?” Lexington asked, hoping that Suki could be hiding behind one of them.

            “Nope, not a sign of her anywhere,” Broadway replied, shaking his head. “We’ve looked at all the dark places she could hide but we just couldn’t find her. Maybe she really is safe and sound with Hudson back at the clock tower.”

            “Maybe we should start looking for her at places that are conspicuous. She might be among them, trying to ask for help or something,” Angela suggested.

            “I don’t think she would be silly enough to even approach a human. Her odd features are just too obvious, and the only person she trusts and will really talk to is her boyfriend Brooklyn,” Lexington said.

            “That’s right, and I’m going to look for her even if it takes all night.”

            The gang spun round as Brooklyn came swooping down beside them. By the worried and solemn look on his face, it was evident that Suki was not at Elisa’s home anymore. Brooklyn looked over the city of Manhattan and tried to get a whiff of air. Broadway looked at him questioningly.

            “What exactly are you doing, Brooklyn?”

            “I’m trying to find her scent. I know how her smell is like and I’d recognize it anywhere. If I can get her scent, we’ll have a sure fire of her whereabouts.”

            After a few minutes of sniffing, Brooklyn stood up abruptly and jumped off the cinema building, gliding over the horizon. The others followed suite. They followed Brooklyn’s lead as he continued to sniff and swoop up and down everywhere, trying to find her trail. Soon he stopped in front of an alley and landed. The others did the same, curious to know where Brooklyn was going to lead them next. Suddenly they heard sounds of choking and gurgling, like someone was in pain. They ran towards the sound. The sound led them to another alley where they could see two figures struggling. One of them was a female and had Suki’s scent.

            Brooklyn recognized that scent anywhere. It was his Suki and she seemed as if she was struggling for her life or something. He feared the worse; was the other figure trying to kill her or something? Was the other figure hurting her? His eyes glowed as he roared and pounced onto the figure, sending him skidding to another corner. He grabbed the figure—who was a man—by the collar, raised him high above his head and was about to strike him cold when Suki’s voice slowed him down.

            “Brooklyn?”

            “Suki?” Brooklyn’s glowing eyes dimmed as he flung the man away and trotted towards her. There was a streetlight nearby, so Brooklyn took her to the light to see if she was hurt. “Are you alright, Suki? Are you hurt or anything? Did the man hurt you? You had me really, really worried, you know that?”

            “Suki hungry…” Suki moaned tiredly. Her head was bent low so he couldn’t see her face.

            “I’ll get you something to eat later. Let me see if you’re hurt or anything.”

            “Uh, Brook,” Broadway voiced out as he and Angela went over to look at the man who was really pale and going cold. “I think she hurt this guy more than he did her. Check Suki out.”

            Brooklyn took Suki’s chin and lifted it up, trying to see what Broadway meant. He was shocked to see that there was blood at the corner of her lips. He looked at his own hands and saw that they were covered with blood. He gasped in horror and turned sharply towards Broadway and Angela who, in turn, brought the man under the street light to show him the bite marks on his jugular and the thick amount of blood that followed, staining the collar in red. He turned back to Suki and saw that Suki was looking back at him with tired eyes while licking the blood from the corner of her lips absentmindedly, as if trying to remember something she did.

            “Oh God…Suki…What have you done…?” Brooklyn could only manage to breathe out his words as he hugged Suki close to his chest.


	8. Chapter 8

            _She was wandering around the city among the humans, her eyes frantically searching for her_ _Brooklyn_ _. Where could_ _Brooklyn_ _be? Where was her protector, her shield, her cover, her love? She couldn’t stand being away from him. Without him, she was nothing. Without him, she wasn’t safe. Without him, there is nothing in the world she could do._

_Her life was torn apart. How could she ever be separated from him? How could Elisa take her away from him? She had to find him. She had to find him fast. She was hungry—so hungry she could eat anything. She was surrounded by humans who looked at her curiously as she passed by. She was so alone out here, and so hungry. She knew no one here to help her satisfy her hunger. She was scared. She wanted_ _Brooklyn_ _. She wanted her friends. Where is Broadway who could provide her food? Where’s_ _Lexington_ _who could take them anywhere easier without getting caught? Where is the sweet Angela? Where’s…_ _Brooklyn_ _…?_

_When her eyes came back into focus after that sudden long blackout she had,_ _Brooklyn_ _was there in front of her eyes. Her prayers and hope has not failed her. She was glad, happy and relieved. Her love was right in front of her! He’s with her now! They’re together again! She swore she will never part from him ever, not even for all the money in the world! She felt some sort of an aftertaste in her mouth, but she didn’t care._ _Brooklyn_ _was there and that’s all she wanted right now._

_But she could see through his eyes that everything is going to change._

                                                                                    *

            The gargoyles were all gathered around Suki who was sitting in the middle looking pretty guilty and awkward. Elisa was also there, which made the situation even more awkward than it is, especially when Elisa was a detective, a member of the law. The blood on her lips were fairly clean, but it couldn’t hide the scent—Bronx cowered away from that smell.

            “And you say that she had just feasted the blood of a human?” Goliath asked the trio and Angela. They nodded one by one, though reluctant to convict the friend that they have come to be fond of. Elisa came close to Suki and knelt in front of her.

            “Suki, tell me. What happened back then? Do you remember anything?” Elisa asked.

            Suki turned to Brooklyn, looking lost. Brooklyn nodded, gesturing her to tell the truth. She then turned to Elisa and replied, “Suki only remember…very hungry…Suki want find Brooklyn, but cannot find…Suki saw man, very hungry…then Suki…not remember anymore…”

            “This is bad. Really bad,” Elisa said worriedly as she took a look at Suki’s blood-stained fangs. “The experiment she did on herself is giving side effects.”

            “Experiment?” Brooklyn’s heart skipped a beat. It cannot be…could it? Everyone turned to look at her questioningly.

            “I’ve found out more about her past, and it has confirmed her identity as a human and a scientist,” Elisa said as she took out the printed information for Suki to see. Brooklyn wanted to stop her—he didn’t want her to remember and leave him—but Goliath laid a hand on Brooklyn’s shoulder, his eyes giving him a She-has-to-know-the-truth look. Brooklyn sighed inwardly and watched as Elisa unfolded the piece of paper for Suki.

            “See, Suki? This is you, well, _were_ you when you were human, that is,” Elisa said as she pointed at the picture on the right side of the paper. “You look like this before you became like this.”

            “Suki…was human? Like Elisa?” Suki stared at the picture on the paper in awe.

            “Yes, Suki. Your real name is Yusuki Hamasaki, and you were a genius, a very, very smart girl. You were a scientist working in a medicine industry. Do you remember that?”

            “Suki…was…scientist…?”

            “Mmhmm, and you were very good at making medicine. But after the robbery, you were scared. You didn’t go to work, and you disappeared from everyone’s sight. Suki, do you remember your small lab in your home? You’ve been using that to do a little private experiment of your own. You wanted to become like this.”

            Elisa held up a whole stack of pictures in front of Suki. The gargoyles moved closer to see the pictures. They gasped in awe as the pictures were all about them. There was Broadway flying towards a skyscraper, Lexington playing videogames in front of the TV with Brooklyn, Bronx and Hudson at the beach enjoying the sea, Goliath talking to Elisa from her window, Angela with Broadway sitting together at the cinema’s top bunk watching a movie, the whole clan changing from flesh to stone and another one was vice versa.

            “These pictures…she’s been taking pictures of us in secret! How did she take them without us finding out? How did she do that? Look at this, this is seriously close-up! There is no way she could be able to take that with coming face to face with us!” Lexington exclaimed as he pointed at a picture where he and his brothers were fighting a mob who was trying to hurt a family in a car.

            “She’s a genius, remember? She can always come up with some gadget to take your pictures up close and personal,” Elisa replied. “I found a whole lot of them back at her home. She had been keeping records of you guys in a notebook and records of her experiments in another. Suki, you have been doing this experiment for a long time and you have been trying so many times to make yourself into a gargoyle just like them. You were scared when the company worked for was robbed because you’re the youngest and most likely prone to danger, and that made you more determined to become a gargoyle like them. You wanted to be strong just like them.”

            “Suki…Suki make self into this…?” Suki was still trying to take it all in as she looked at herself in her odd gargoyle-like form.

            “Woah, this is creepy, man. Some of these pictures were dated when we were still adjusting to this future world!” Lexington said, shivering a little. “She’s been on our tail ever since we’ve got here! That is scary!”

            “Suki take these pictures?” Suki asked Elisa as she looked at her share of the pictures.

            “Yes, Suki. You have been taking their pictures and investigating them since the first time I’ve met them. I’ve read your notes, Suki. You have been on them since the day I first knew them, you know, that fateful day where I was investigating on Xanatos’ case and those weird rocks started falling from the air. You were there, Suki, among the crowd. And you followed me secretly all the way and caught the first glimpse of the gargoyles. You were even able to keep your presence out of my eyes. You make a better detective than I am.”

            “But why? Why all this torture on herself?” Goliath asked as he returned his share of pictures to Elisa. “We gargoyles have weaknesses too. We are not always as strong as she thinks we are. She could’ve killed herself doing this. Why does she want to do this?”

            “It’s not a question of why she did it that was important,” Elisa said as she picked a picture out of the stack and put it onto Suki’s lap. “It’s a question of for whom she did this experiment that is the issue here.”

            Suki looked down and saw that it was a full scale picture of Brooklyn on the clock tower, smiling at his brothers. She blushed and held the picture up to her face, purring.

            “Ye don’t mean…?” Hudson said, getting the idea. Elisa nodded.

            “She did it for Brooklyn. She wanted to become a gargoyle to be with Brooklyn. She had a crush on you for a very long time, Brooklyn, and she was willing to go the extra mile to perfect herself for you.”

            “What?!” Brooklyn was taken aback. Suki did this…for him…? She went through all the torture and the pain of turning herself into a gargoyle just for…him? He found it hard to believe. “It can’t be…! It can’t be! How could she be so willing to do this on herself?! She couldn’t just…”

            “She’s right. These pictures…” Angela said as she looked at her share of pictures. “Almost all of these pictures have Brooklyn in them. There’s even a picture where only Brooklyn’s tail was showing. There’s Brooklyn in almost every picture.”

            “Yeah, you’re right! There’s Brooklyn while he was waking up,” Broadway said as he pointed at his share. “And there’s Brooklyn with me flying in the air, and this one is where Brooklyn saved Lexington from The Pack! She’s been onto us for so long!! Who could’ve thought of that?!”

            “There are some humans who are willing to do anything for love, Brooklyn,” Elisa said. “She is one of them.”

            Brooklyn stared at Suki with a weight in his heart. He had never thought that someone would go through so much just for him. It was both a heavy yet blissful feeling. He never knew that he had become the cause of her oddity. He didn’t think he would lead an innocent young human to turn into something she wasn’t.

            “If she has created herself into a gargoyle,” Broadway voiced out, “why did she start sucking human’s blood? We gargoyles don’t suck blood. We eat like you humans eat.”

            “It has to be the flaw in her experiment,” Elisa replied. “The transformation has short-circuited her brain that limited her intelligence, made her lose part of her memory and also weakened her speech capacity, which means that after transforming into this form, she became a not-so-genius girl and can’t talk right. And I’ve been through her notes and found out that of all the bats she could use to merge with her DNA, the vampire bat is the most suitable one. The vampire bats feed on blood from other animals, and she has then turned into a blood-sucking vampire bat herself.”

            The younger members of the clan gasped. Goliath sighed in pity—all that trouble and yet backfired by one simple flaw. Suki still remained seated on the floor still trying to take in everything. She shifted her gaze from Broadway to Lexington to Angela and then finally to Brooklyn. All of them looked shocked, as if she was a terrible monster and not a sight to behold. Suki shivered as she looked again at her hands and her wings and at her own body. She looked back at Brooklyn who was looking back at her in dismay. Suddenly she stood up and started screaming in agony, as she was in pain. She screamed and screamed like she would never stop. Brooklyn immediately came to her aid.

            “Suki? Suki, it’s OK, I’m here. What’s wrong? Calm down, calm down!” Brooklyn exclaimed as he held Suki close to his chest. “Calm down! What’s wrong? Talk to me!”

            “No! No! NO~!!! Go away!!! No touch Suki~!!! No touch Suki~!!!” Suki screamed as she struggled to get away from Brooklyn’s embrace. Brooklyn held her tighter.

            “What’s wrong? Tell me, Suki! I’m here!”

            “No~!! No touch Suki~!!!” Suki yelled as she struggled again. Without warning, she suddenly sank her teeth onto Brooklyn’s shoulder, which is almost near the jugular, and it was bleeding a little. Brooklyn was taken aback and let her go out of reflex. Suki stared in horror at the bleeding bite marks and flew up to the door that was on the face of the clock, panting breathlessly.

            “Suki, come back down here! It’s alright! I was just a little shocked! Come here!”

            “No…Suki…Suki no want…hurt Brooklyn…” Suki said before running out of the tower and jumping off the edge. When Brooklyn and the rest finally came up and out of the tower, she was already out of sight. Brooklyn was in panic and jumped up onto the edge in a thrice.

            “We have to go and find her! She won’t be able to survive out there! We gotta go get her back!”

            “No!” Goliath growled in his low rumbling voice as he picked Brooklyn up and away from the edge. “You cannot go out there again. It is almost sunrise and I cannot risk you turning into stone in the middle of the flight. Calm down, Brooklyn!”

            “But…But Suki…She…She needs me! She’s very vulnerable out there! Elisa, you did say that she would fall asleep almost immediately once the sun comes up and will only wake when the sun goes down! You even said that she cannot be awaken unless it is truly sundown! What if the humans discover her and take her away? She’ll never know a thing until it’s too late!”

            “Don’t worry, Brooklyn. I’ll go out and look for her,” Elisa replied. “You’ve been out there and under too much stress. You need your rest.”

            As soon as she mentioned it, Brooklyn felt an unbelievable sense of fatigue. He slumped in Goliath’s embrace and Broadway and Lexington helped him up one of the stones of the tower. Elisa was right—he had been working himself too much on Suki and bearing all the responsibility. It’s about time he let go a little and trust someone else to help him out.

            “Everything will be fine. Don’t you worry. Just rest and leave it to me,” Elisa assured Brooklyn. “It’s also one way for me to make up for taking her away from you in the first place.”

            “Bring her here safe and sound,” Goliath said, speaking for all the gargoyles. “She has found favour in our eyes and we do not wish to see her go into any harm.”

            “I’m on it, Goliath. Don’t worry.”

           As the sun rose, Brooklyn let out a sigh, the worry and anxiousness still hung in his heart as he slowly turned to stone.


	9. Chapter 9

            _She flew and flew, not knowing when to stop. Her only plan was to get as far as possible away from the clock tower and away from the gargoyle clan. She was afraid to be among them, not after she had been caught killing someone and sucking his blood. And worst of all, she didn’t want to end up sucking Brooklyn’s blood just like she almost did when she found out that she had bit Brooklyn’s neck. She didn’t want to hurt anybody, and she seriously didn’t want to hurt_ _Brooklyn_ _._

_Anyone but_ _Brooklyn_ _._

_Her head ached a little. The things Elisa had just told her were slightly coming back to her now. It may be in bits and pieces, but she remembered them a little alright. She remembered the smiles of other humans whom she called ‘friends’ and their praises as she was able to finish an equation she never thought she knew. She remembered proud faces of a couple whom she recognized as her parents as she graduated from college. She even remembered being given an offer letter to work with a company the name she couldn’t recall. She remembered the robbery, the rocks that fell from the sky when she was on her way with her friends to a local nightclub, the first time she saw the gargoyles that weren’t supposed to exist in this scientific age and the first time she laid eyes on_ _Brooklyn_ _. He was a sight to behold. She remembered the feeling when she found herself falling in love at first sight over him._

_Then the bitter memories came in as she lowered herself to the ground and hid in a dark alley when the sun slowly came up. She remembered doing countless experiments on the bats and on herself and the searing pain that followed. She remembered how she was determined to make herself a gargoyle just like_ _Brooklyn_ _and how she was able to persevere with_ _Brooklyn_ _’s picture as her encouragement. Then she remembered the pain as she started to change into the gargoyle she had worked so hard for. She remembered her mind slowly going blank as the growth of her wings and pain seared through her bones like knives cutting from inside._

_As she slowly slipped into her deep slumber, the memories faltered one by one until the only memory that remained in her mind was taking a last look at Brooklyn’s picture before her transformation was complete and her splitting headache overtook her sanity…_

                                                                                                *

            Elisa walked around the city trying to look for Suki on her own. It was hard work as she didn’t want to draw attention to people that there’s a hybrid in the loose and she definitely wouldn’t get a positive answer if she showed them Suki’s human picture when she had practically changed a lot ever since she quit Techtro Industries.

            Elisa scouted around the area to see if Suki was around. She didn’t know where to start, but she had to do something if she were ever going to find Suki. Like Broadway, Lexington and Angela did, she searched the secluded corners, the roofs of abandoned houses or buildings, dirty streets and dark alleys—anywhere she could figure out. Yet no matter how far she went or how long she looked, without a trail or a clue to lead her, she simply couldn’t do anything. Besides, fatigue and sleepiness was getting into her, and that disabled her find.

            Just when she thought that she would never find Suki and had to bring bad news to Brooklyn and the rest of the gargoyle clan, her eyes caught sight of something unusual in a dark alley. She walked over and checked it out. Using tissue paper, she carefully picked it up and realized that under the light, it was an earring the shape of a cross. Her trained photographic memory recalled that Suki had worn that kind of earring was on the right earlobe and a ruby-studded butterfly earring on the left.

            It was definitely Suki’s earring alright, and she as definitely here taking her morning nap.

            While she was trying to figure where she could’ve been, Elisa noticed something else on the floor. She picked that up too and saw that it was a piece of torn cloth. She recognized it as part of the loincloth Goliath or Lexington or any of the other gargoyles would wear. There is only one gargoyle who could walk in daylight and fear not the sun that might turn it to stone.

            “Demona.”

                                                                                                *

            Suki was sleeping on the bed practically oblivious to her surroundings. She had never once awoken when she was taken from her dirty sleeping spot to this huge, expensive-looking bed. She was tucked well in a really soft blanket and her deep sleep state had made it clear that she will not wake up unless the sun has set.

            The same theory goes to Demona who was watching her sleep from one side of the bed. As we all know, Puck’s spell on her has cause her to morph from human to gargoyle as soon as the sun sets, and right now, Demona was actually standing there in her gargoyle outfit of half-T and loincloth, but now in human form. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she continued to look at the sleeping Suki.

            “A very interesting being,” Demona commented silently. “She looks like a human, and yet she has wings just like a gargoyle. Could she be a new breed? A new kind of gargoyle the result of certain ‘relationships’ between Goliath’s clan and the humans? She definitely doesn’t look like the human detective though; she looks more of an Asian kind of person. And she was a far cry from looking like Goliath or any of the gargoyles. Who could she be?”

            It came as a surprise to her when she came across Suki when she was out into the streets among the humans she loathed to do a little grocery shopping (and also a little bit of plotting to destroy the humans once and for all). She had smelt something different among the humans, something half-animal-half-human. She may have become human during the day but her special gargoyle sense of smell never failed her. She followed the scent until she found Suki there on the dirty and dark alley sleeping. She kicked her slightly at first to see if she was dead before lowering herself to check if she was still breathing. When she made sure that she was alive, she tried to shake the hybrid awake but couldn’t. Finally she resolved to take the hybrid home. She left her alone to sleep in her bedroom while she resumed her human duties as Dominique Destin in her company and only came back to check on Suki again during the late afternoon.

            While Suki slept, Demona pulled away the blanket and started to examine her thoroughly. She touched her ear and felt for the pointy tip. She opened her mouth slightly and touched tentatively at the protruding fangs. She checked her skin, slightly surprised at the tan complexion and not the abnormal skin colour gargoyles have, and she checked her fingers and toes. Her eyes widened in astonishment as she noticed the 10 fingers and 10 toes on her hands and feet like her human ones instead of the 8 claw-like fingers and 6 toes on hitched-back feet like the ones gargoyle have. Her hair was of the darkest night you can imagine and when Demona opened one of her eyes a little, she noticed the dark purple colour of her pupil.

            Demona had to admit—she was pretty stunned about this strange phenomenon before her. She—Suki—looked all human, if the ears, strange eye colour and fangs were ignored, that is; and yet she wasn’t entirely human. She looked almost like a gargoyle too, as Demona inspected the wings and their structure, and yet she wasn’t entirely a gargoyle either. She was like a bridge between two worlds that would’ve seemed impossible. She had never seen anything like it.

            “And nice outfit too,” Demona commented as she looked at Suki’s clothes that looked exactly like hers. “Of course, pink is not my kind of colour.”

            “Brooklyn…” Suki mumbled in her sleep. Demona immediately got the idea.

            “Ah…I can see that she has been hanging around with Goliath and the rest of his puny little clan,” Demona smirked. “And our dear Brooklyn has got himself a girlfriend. Interesting indeed.”

            Soon it dawned to her that she has been observing Suki and so engrossed about her to realize that the sun was beginning to set. She then remembered that she was supposed to meet a dealer on getting her the latest smuggled weapons she had planned to use to destroy mankind. As the sun set, she could feel the transformation coming to her and the searing pain that followed. She groaned and moaned in pain as her skin colour changed and the wings began sprouting out of her back. Her legs hitched back to turn into the pair of gargoyle feet she was more accustomed to.

            When the tail finally came out, it was the same time when Suki started stretching herself awake. As Demona regained her composure, her eyes came in contact with Suki’s dark purple ones. Whether it was because she was looking at a gargoyle or she was still groggy with sleep, she didn’t react as much as she reacted to Elisa. She looked around her, her eyes looking slightly tired and confused—or to be more specific, drained of energy.

            “Brooklyn…?” Suki muttered as she looked around to find her beau. Demona came towards her and laid her hands on her shoulder.

            “Brooklyn is not around here,” Demona replied haughtily. “The name’s Demona. It’s obvious that you have been with that wretched clan for some time.”

            “Brooklyn…Oh, Suki remember, Suki not want be with them anymore…” Suki’s face looked downcast.

            “Oh, really? And why is that, little missy?” Demona asked sarcastically.

            “Brooklyn see Suki hurt people. Suki no want hurt Brooklyn. Suki run away.”

            “Well, that is something I would’ve expect to hear from a timid little mouse like you,” Demona smirked. “What have you done to hurt anyone and why…”

            “Ms. Destin, I was wondering if you…Good Lord! Who…What the heck are you?!”

            Demona turned around to see the dealer she was supposed to meet for the smuggled weapons inside the bedroom. He obviously looked shocked at the sight of two gargoyles—one a hybrid—on the bed instead of the charismatic and devilishly charming redhead Ms. Dominique Destin. Demona cursed inwardly. No living human who did business with her has ever seen her gargoyle form in her own domain and in her own home. If this goes out, she’ll be worse off and her revenge on humans would be a harder goal to reach. She had no choice but to eliminate this man before it’s too late.

            Before she could do anything, something else swooshed past her and pounced on the man. After getting herself together over the mild surprise, she saw that it was Suki who jumped onto the surprised man with a loud snarl, baring her fangs at him with a very hungry look on her face. Demona has never seen any face as hungry as this. Without warning, Suki bore her fangs onto the man’s jugular and sucking sounds could be heard. The man struggled to get out of her fatal bite and was gurgling in agony. Suki continued to suck until the man stopped struggling. In fact, her face looked so hungry that she kept sucking even though the man _had_ stopped struggling and had slumped into a complete stupor. She sucked and sucked and didn’t seem that she would ever stop.

            Demona had watched the entire process with wide eyes. She watched in fascination as Suki probably sucked the life force out of the man. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Suki finally let go of the man she was feasting on and stopped to catch her breath. Demona got off the bed she was sitting on and took a look at the man. He was barely recognizable with the shrunken look on his face and his protruding eyeballs. Demona realized that this hybrid was actually sucking blood out of his body like a small child sucking orange juice out of a packet drink. The man was practically shriveled up like a prune when she was done with him.

            Suki stared at the man in horror when she realized what she had done and backed away a little, “Oh no…Suki hurt people again…Suki no want hurt him…Suki…hungry…Suki scare you, yes…?”

            “On the contrary,” Demona smiled evilly as she picked the shriveled man up by the collar. “You have made me the luckiest gargoyle in the whole world.”


	10. Chapter 10

            _She had a nightmare. She dreamt that she was walking down a dark and lonely road with no one around her and no one to guide the way. Goliath wasn’t around, Hudson and Bronx weren’t there, Broadway wasn’t there, and neither was_ _Lexington_ _or Angela._

_Neither was_ _Brooklyn_ _around for her. There wasn’t even a sight of his protective wings or his gentle smile or his loving hand to be there to keep her company. She was alone. All alone in the dark road. Unprotected, unshielded, unsafe._

_The next thing she knew was that the road was suddenly bright and there were people on the streets. Not gargoyles, but people like Elisa’s kind. There were humans abundant everywhere—tall, short, fat, thin, white black, and all kinds of people walking down the street. But what fascinated her weren’t their looks or their personalities._

_It was their necks, or to be more precise, their jugular._

_Their jugulars were throbbing in a steady beat of soft light. She could hear their heartbeat through the jugular. It was truly tempting. Truly inviting. She had never felt more tempted than this. Her hunger began to overpower her and make her lose her control. She had to feed. She wanted something that was in their jugular only her cravings knew what._

_Without warning, she found herself pouncing on them. Her fangs were set to the kill as they bore into their throats and started sucking the life out of them. She could feel something warm and delicious going down her throat and extinguishing the fire of hunger that was burning in her stomach. She sucked and sucked, pouncing from one human to another and gorged herself of all the blood that was churning inside their body and flowing into hers as she consumed them one by one. She had never felt more satisfied than this._

_When she opened her eyes to see who else she had left out, she widened her eyes to see that the person whose blood she was sucking had white billowing hair and a beak-like mouth. His eyes were open in surprise and his clay-coloured skin was going pale. She saw him having a pair of wings just like hers. She recognized those wings anywhere._

_It was_ _Brooklyn_ _._

                                                                                                *

            “What?! Demona has Suki??”

            Elisa has made her way towards the clock tower later in the evening and waited until the gargoyles broke out of their stone encasing before trying to break the news to the gargoyles. Evidently, the gargoyles didn’t like the answer at all, especially when it concerned with one of their worst enemies, Demona.

            “Yes, I’m afraid so,” Elisa replied regretfully. “I guess she has beaten me in finding Suki. Who knows what Demona would do, especially if she finds out about Suki’s tendency to make a dinner or a snack out of people.”

            “This is terrible!” Lexington exclaimed. “We have to go and get her back before Demona finds about her secret! With Demona around, there’s bound to be trouble afoot. She would definitely misuse her for her evil schemes.”

            “Yeah, he’s right!” Broadway agreed. “There’s no telling what kind of new plan Demona will cook up when she knows that Suki has the blood-sucking appetite. We have to go out there and get her back!”

            “I understand that you guys want to help Suki get back to the clan,” Elisa said, trying to calm the younger gargoyles down, “but we have no idea where she lives and no idea where her workplace may be. As far as I know, we may not even know her human name. We would never know of her whereabouts at this rate.”

            “She’s right,” Goliath said in his deep rumbling voice. “We cannot go after her and investigate about her during the day to get whatever information we want on Demona, and we don’t even know anything about her whereabouts even during the night. If Elisa couldn’t find out about her human identity, I suspect that trying to find her now would be like trying to look for a needle in a haystack.”

            “Aye, lass,” Hudson agreed. “Unless we have a miracle, there ain’t telling where that Suki lass may be. She might be out there somewhere with…Now where is that Brooklyn lad?”

            That was when they realized that Brooklyn was not among them. They quickly moved out of the tower to see Brooklyn already soaring in the air going towards the city of Manhattan. Lexington and Broadway called after him but he was too far from earshot. Hudson sighed and muttered, “The curse of youth. He would never find that lass like this.”

            “We always say he’s the hot-blooded one,” Elisa said.

            “Go after him,” Goliath said to Lexington and Broadway. “Make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.”

            Lexington and Broadway nodded and jumped off the tower, tailing behind their brother. The elders of the clan stared as they disappeared further and further away into the depths of Manhattan. Bronx whined, a worried look on his face. Elisa laid her hand on the gargoyle pet’s head and hushed him, “I know, Bronx. I’m worried too.”

            “It seems that our lad Brooklyn truly has the heart for that Suki lass,” Hudson commented.

            “It is true,” Goliath nodded. “But let’s not hope that his love for her bring him into any harm.”

                                                                                                *

            “You will do as I as say, vampire, or else!”

            Demona was towering over the cowering Suki as her eyes glowed red glaring at her. They were in a small room which didn’t look as pretty or as magnificent as Demona’s, but still homey and comfortable. Suki was on the bed cowering from the raging Demona and it was evident on her face that Demona was a very scary figure; much scarier than the first time when she met Brooklyn and the other gargoyles.

            “No, please. Suki not want hurt people. Suki not want make danger. Suki not want be danger,” Suki pleaded when Demona demanded her to do the unimaginable.

            “Well, guess you don’t have choice now, do you?” Demona said evilly. “You are already a danger to yourself and the people around you. You’re lucky that I’m being compassionate enough not to end your misery and snuff the life out of you. I’m giving you a chance to live and feel that you belong. You don’t belong to the humans out there and you certainly don’t belong to Goliath’s wretched clan. I found you, so you belong to me! Mine and mine alone, do you understand?!”

            “Elisa say…Suki was human,” Suki said, looking downcast. “Suki belong to human. Suki not want to hurt own people…”

            Her words were cut short by Demona’s growl and her strong claw-like hands on her shoulder, gripping her so tightly until she whined. Demona’s red glowing eyes bore into her purple ones as she hissed, “Humans are incompetent and foolish! They are evil and must be destroyed. I can see that you were once a human, and what a foul race you have been. Tell me, vampire, what is the reason for you to become like this if you cherish your humanity so much?”

            “Suki…Suki become this…because want become like Brooklyn, like Goliath…like you…” Suki replied, her voice hesitant. Demona laughed maliciously at her answer.

            “You see? Even you, as a human, marveled at our species and want to become one of us! Don’t you see that humans are just as foolish and as dumb as they have always been since the past? Your so-called humans have betrayed and destroyed our clan once because they were afraid of our power and our strengths. Now you want to become like us because you learnt about our strengths and power and want to be as powerful as we are! Humans are of no use to this world! This land is a waste for mankind, and it should belong to us! We have existed earlier than the humans and we should be the one to rule over this world and them, not the other way round!”

            Suki released herself from Demona’s grip and cowered further away to the wall. She truly feared this gargoyle. The gargoyle she knew was never as hot-tempered as her. They were either kind, firm, sweet-talking, funny or just plain charming, like Brooklyn. Her red flaming hair made her scary looks even scarier. Demona calmed down a little, but her eyes were still glowing red as she sat on the bed beside Suki.

            “You will do as I say, vampire, and I’m making it clear to you that there is no other way but to obey me,” Demona hissed. “You will stay in this room and never come out. Your meals will only be bread and water once a day and nothing else. I can be perfectly sure that once I take you outside, you are going to be very hungry to even care for those humans. If you don’t do as I say, I guess there will be a very serious accident in Goliath’s clan.”

            “What will Demona do to Goliath?” Suki asked worriedly.

            “Let’s just say Brooklyn will be more than just heartbroken. Think about it, Suki, while you still can,” Demona smirked evilly as she walked out of the room and closed the door, locking it from the outside.

            Suki started to worry as she stayed in the slightly dark room on the bed. What would she do? What does she mean by Brooklyn being ‘more than just heartbroken’? Was she going to hurt Brooklyn? Was she going to harm Brooklyn and the rest of the clan if she didn’t do what she tells her to do? If they got hurt, that would mean that it was her fault! She doesn’t want to hurt anybody, but if she didn’t do it, she would, in a way, hurt the gargoyle clan.

            As her eyelids grew heavier, she knew that it was almost sunrise and it would be time for her to sleep. She couldn’t fight the urge. She wanted to think of a way to get out of this place before Demona asked her to do the unthinkable but she just couldn’t keep awake. Like the gargoyles who had no control over their body changing into stone by day, she had no control over her sleepiness as well.

            She was left with only one choice in her mind.

                                                                                                *

            Brooklyn walked around the city of Manhattan among the people wearing their costumes and, fortunately, ignoring him. It was Halloween night—the most favourite night of the gargoyles where they could walk around the humans without fearing that they would scare the life out of them. But it wasn’t the time for Brooklyn to be hanging around and mingling with the people happily celebrating their Halloween (and neither would Goliath and Elisa again this time). He was there to look for Suki, his one and only important person in the world. He feared that she could be among these people under the orders of Demona, grabbing them unaware and sucking their blood till they go dry. He truly feared that Demona, with her manipulative words and all, influenced her to turn against mankind she once was and joined her in her plan of destroying them once and for all. He truly feared it. He couldn’t bear the idea of her turning against the clan and him and doing Demona’s dirty work.

            He could feel his body going quite uneasy and noticed that the sky was gradually getting brighter and the people were getting lesser and lesser as the day set in. He ignored it. He continued to keep his eyes on the road to see if there were any signs of Suki and trying to find her by scent. He practically ignored the calls of his brothers who were following behind him and trying to tell him to get to the nearest building to rest.

            Finally, after trying in vain to slow Brooklyn down, Lexington and Broadway took the last resort: using force. They pounced onto Brooklyn and held him tight, dragging him a nearby building. They had Brooklyn under one of their arms while they climbed the walls of the building up towards the top. It wasn’t until they got his feet on the top floor of the building that they finally let go the struggling Brooklyn.

            “What the heck do you think you’re doing?” Brooklyn exclaimed angrily. “Can’t you see I’m looking for Suki here? She could be anywhere, probably even among the people here! I have to go out there and stop her from…”

            “Cool it, Romeo. We know you are worried about Suki but it’s not going to work walking around there blindly trying to find someone when you have no idea where exactly she is,” Broadway tried to reason with the hot-headed Brooklyn.

            “You don’t understand. Elisa said she was with Demona and she could be influenced by whatever Demona would say to her!” Brooklyn said, shuddering at the memory of how she was able to manipulate him to betray the clan and Goliath. “Suki is just a young girl. She is still fresh towards her surroundings and she definitely doesn’t know what kind of person Demona is. She could be…”

            “Do you think we never thought about it?” Lexington scolded. “Do you think we have never thought of what Demona is capable of doing? Brooklyn, you’re not the only who had encounters with her. We know what she’s capable of, especially when she was able to live throughout the centuries for so long and know more about the passing of time than anyone of us! Do you think we’re not worried about Suki too? Would you please just stop torturing yourself with all the responsibilities? She’s one of us too!”

            “He’s right,” Broadway replied as he laid a hand on Brooklyn’s shoulder. “We all care about Suki and we all want to look for her. But you cannot just find her like this. Manhattan is a big city and Suki is only one person. Besides, you don’t want to risk turning into stone in front of those humans, do you? She’s part of our clan, she’s our sister and she’s our responsibility too. We all want her back safe and sound.”

            Brooklyn slumped and sat abruptly on the floor, his face looking downcast. He shivered as he said quietly, “I just…I just want her back. I mean, it feels so different without her around. It has only been a while, that I know, but I just can’t help feeling uneasy without her by my side. She was always there trying to look for me, wanting me to shelter her, wanting me to protect her, wanting me to assure her that everything was alright. I am the only one she had ever been close to and the only one she trusted. I…I just…I just…”

            “You love her, don’t you?” Broadway asked. “I can tell by your words. You are in love with Suki and you truly care about her and her wellbeing. She hangs around with you so much and trusts you more she does us and you have grown to love her. We understand that.”

            “I have…never felt such strong feelings for her before…” Brooklyn buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking as his sobs could be heard. “I have never felt so worried about anyone and I have never felt such urge to do almost anything for anyone before. She…She was beautiful and innocent and all…She was afraid that her blood-sucking appetite would hurt me or even kill me. She went through everything and endured too much pain just to…be…with me…”

            “We understand how you feel, Brooklyn,” Lexington said as he took a glance towards the horizon to see the sun slowly coming out. “She has loved you a lot to be willing to go through it all and you have loved her a lot to be willing to risk your existence and your safety to find her and make her come back to your life, but for now, you must rest. You’ll need it.”

            With his hands still buried in his hands and his brothers’ comforting hands on his shoulders, Brooklyn continued to sob silently until the trio hardened into stone as the sun finally came out.


	11. Chapter 11

            _She opened her eyes slowly, her mind slowly drifting from her slumber land. She sat up slowly and stretched herself, trying to rub the sleep away from her eyes. Another day has gone by and she could feel herself going hungry. She looked around and saw her usual bread and water on the table. She took it and stared at it before hesitantly stuffing it into her mouth._

_Suddenly, the bread and water tasted awful to her, like eating a piece of dead flesh and drinking ditch water. She spat it out and threw it away, sending the cup crashing onto the wall. It wasn’t the first time she found out that her taste buds were beginning to reject real food. She couldn’t remember when it started though, but she knew that one day she ate her usual bread and water and it started to taste awful, like a rotten egg or an overripe fruit. At first she was able to stomach a few mouthfuls but as the days went by, she couldn’t stand the taste of it anymore. Just like tonight, nothing tasted better._

_Except blood._

_Yes, the sweet taste of blood. The feeling of having a taste of life going into her mouth and slipping down her throat, filling the cavity of hunger inside her stomach. The feeling of sucking someone else’s life force and satisfying the fire and the cravings deep inside her. It felt so good…like tasting the purest of wine and the sweetest of sweets…_

_She slapped herself for ever having that thought. How could she think of such things? Didn’t she promise herself that she would never hurt anyone? Didn’t she make a vow that she would not ever comply with Demona’s wishes? How could she even have a thought about such ugly things? Maybe because she was stuck in this room for so long without being able to see the outside world except through a barred window in her room._

_Or maybe…Just maybe…_

_There is no other way at all to fight it._

                                                                                                *

            It has been about 4 days since Suki disappeared. The gargoyles searched for her everywhere. They tried every home that could be Demona’s lair—abandoned building sites, homes that have been empty for a long time, rundown houses or old buildings, anywhere they could think of, but they just couldn’t find her. Elisa tried her luck in the morning to look for Demona but she also had no luck. It was as if Demona was able to camouflage her and her home so that no one would be able to look for her. Another problem would be that they just simply couldn’t find out what Demona’s human name is. Certainly no one has ever heard of anyone by the name ‘Demona’ and there hasn’t been a sighting of Demona whether in human form or in gargoyle form in days. As far as they could see she could’ve practically disappeared from the face of the earth itself.

            They even tried asking Talon and his clan to help look for Suki. They were overwhelmed by the story of Suki turning herself into a gargoyle and the monstrous side-effects to her experiment and were only too willing to help. Talon, Fang, Claw and Maggie flew alongside with the gargoyles to search for Suki and they have spared some of their mornings to help Elisa search for her through air, but they, too, were fruitless. The gargoyles were getting quite restless.

            “We can’t find her anywhere!” Broadway said as he sat down tiredly on the floor of the clock tower. “We’ve tried every place we could think of but there is no one that fits Demona’s description and we just don’t know where she could be!”

            “Same situation here,” Elisa said apologetically. “I couldn’t find her anywhere in the morning and I don’t see her walking around the humans. There are plenty of redheads like her and I didn’t want to risk catching the wrong redhead. She was so good at concealing herself. If she were a criminal, she would definitely make it to the top on the Top Ten Most Wanted List.”

            “I’ve also sneaked into quite a lot of business buildings and check out all the database of any sales or transactions made within these few months and I’ve discovered nothing out of the ordinary,” Lexington replied. “I even hacked through many big corporations and checked their transactions and still I found nothing. There is no way she can survive in the human world without a decent job to feed her and judging by her cunning ways, I bet she could be a big businesswoman by now.”

            “I wouldn’t be surprised even if she owned Xanatos’ biggest factory,” Brooklyn commented darkly. “I tried locating Suki’s scent and find her but no luck. It has been days since she disappeared and her scent might have gone cold by now. Wherever she’s hiding Suki, she’s good. That treacherous devil…!”

            “Keep calm, lad. Being rash is not the gargoyle way,” Hudson said as he laid a hand on his shoulder. “So, lass, what do you suggest we do now? We can’t find the lass anywhere and we’ve tried everywhere. What now?”

            “I’m just as stumped as you are,” Elisa admitted. “Even with Derek’s and his friends’ help, we couldn’t locate where Suki is. Manhattan is a large town and to look for someone out of the ordinary is still a hard thing. Suki is a very timid person and would never go anywhere without Brooklyn or some else by her side, and Demona is too smart to be flying around the city with her without fearing that she might be discovered. She might even have an idea of you guys looking for her.”

            “Then I guess we have only one last resort, and I fear we have no choice,” Goliath finally spoke.

            “I don’t think I like the sound of that,” Angela commented.

            “Yes,” Goliath hesitated before saying, “We need Xanatos’ help.”

                                                                                                *

            “What a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect to have guests coming to my humble home.”

            The gargoyle clan and Elisa were ascending on the castle towers and Xanatos and his wife Fox were sitting there enjoying a nice cup of tea and playing chess together. Owen who was standing beside them ready to refill their tea also didn’t look as surprised as Xanatos sarcastically put it. He was used to their sudden visits.

            “As much as we resent it, we are here to ask for your help,” Goliath replied in his deep rumbling voice with a grudge in his tone.

            “I see. Well, whatever it is, it sure is quite an urgent thing, judging by the desperate look on your faces,” Xanatos replied as he got out of his chair. “What can I do for you and your friends, Goliath?”

            As they moved inside Xanatos’ personal office, the gargoyles explained again the story of Suki and her bizarre experiment and also their suspicion of Demona being human by day and taking Suki as her hostage and her tool of misdeeds. Xanatos listened to everything with interest and when they finished, he was truly amazed indeed, although his face didn’t show it.

            “Amazing,” Xanatos said in bated breath. “I have heard of Yusuki Hamasaki. I’m amazed. She actually succeeded in making a real live gargoyle. She is even better than Sevarius. I admire that. I should’ve asked her to be my genetic scientist instead.”

            Brooklyn growled as his eyes glowed angrily at Xanatos, “If you ever dare think of using Suki as your pawn in your deeds, I’m gonna…”

            Xanatos held up his hands in surrender, “Hey, I was only joking. It is a shame if Demona ever tries to use her for her bidding. It would look bad for both her and all mankind. You know, I have been aware of a certain newbie in the business traits and she has been quite successful. If I’d give it a thought, I would definitely give her a piece of my mind for trying to monopolize the business without my permission. Maybe she might be your missing link.”

            He signaled Owen. Owen nodded and went over to the computer and clicked a few keyboards. The computer screen soon showed a list showing her bio-data and her limited background and a picture of a woman dressed in red. The face and the red hair immediately caught Elisa’s attention. She walked quickly towards the computer screen and pointed at the picture.

            “That’s Demona! That’s her! That’s how she looks like in human form!”

            “Demona? That Dominique Destin, the newbie in the business trait and one of my tight opponents, is actually Demona in the flesh? Now I’m really impressed.” Xanatos said with a leveled tone of surprise.

            “Will you help us or not? Because we do not have much time and she could be using Suki right now for her diabolical plans,” Goliath said, putting a hand on Brooklyn’s shoulder that tensed when he mentioned the phrase that Suki could be Demona’s pawn.

            “I’ll see what I can do,” Xanatos replied as he gestured Owen to get ready. “It’s been a while since I had any actions in my life anyway. Don’t worry, my main target is to eliminate the competition. Whatever you want to do with Yusuki Hamasaki, that’s your business.”

            “You bet it is,” Brooklyn muttered under his breath.

                                                                                                *

            “Look, Suki, there they are. It’s your chance.”

            Suki was hiding with Demona in a secluded alley and they were looking at people passing by without noticing or even paying attention to them. Suki looked at all the people one by one, her face quite and hesitant and afraid.

            “I know you are hungry,” Demona whispered to her ear. “And I know you want to taste it. Go on. Have a bite. It wouldn’t hurt to satisfy your hunger. It is all for the cause.”

            “No,” Suki shook her head as she backed away. “Suki no want to bite people. Suki no want to hurt them. Suki no want…”

            “You promised me, vampire, and you said you would do as I tell you to do!” Demona hissed as her red eyes glowed menacingly at her. She grabbed her wrist and shoved her in front of her towards the passing humans and demanded, “Go on, vampire. I know you want it! Grab someone and satisfy your hunger before you die of it!”

            Suki’s eyes fell upon the people’s necks and could see their jugulars throbbing temptingly at her. Her mouth began to water and her stomach began to growl. Her head began to go woozy. She recognized that feeling—she had it when she was hungry and was lost in the middle of the road trying to find Brooklyn. She winced and looked away, closing her eyes tight, not wanting to give into temptation. She had vowed not to hurt anyone. She knew there is only one way for her to go but she was trying not to go to that road.

            Demona was getting impatient. She growled and let her go harshly. She waited quietly for an unsuspecting passer-by and, as quick as a flash, she grabbed his collar and pulled him into the alley, making sure no one saw her do that. Holding the petrified man, she pulled Suki close to him and snarled with a vengeance.

            “Do it! I know you want it!”

            “No! Suki no want! Suki no hurt…”

            “If you don’t do as I say,” Demona narrowed her eyes dangerously, “you know exactly what would happen to your precious Brooklyn and his clan. Understand?”

            Suki stared guiltily at the whimpering man. Tentatively, she reached her hands out to the man and put them on his shoulders, feeling them wince as she brought him closer to her. She removed the collar of his shirt and stared at the jugular. Her eyes shifted towards Demona who, in turn, glared back at her warningly. She stared back at the man before shutting her eyes tight and sank her fangs onto his jugular, sucking the life out of him. The more she sucked, the more she wanted of his blood. Her hunger soon took over her and as Demona brought in more unsuspecting victims into her grasp, she reluctantly did her bidding, sucking their blood dry and leaving their shriveled body in a careless heap beside the dumpster.

            As she claimed her last victim for the night, tears began trickling out of her dark purple eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

            _She had never felt guiltier than this. She had promised not to hurt anyone that was her kin, but in the end she had actually consumed more than 10 people last night. She couldn’t forget the shocked look on their faces and their gurgling voices as they try to scream for help. She couldn’t forget how the blood from their veins was sucked out of them and entered into her gut. She couldn’t forget the sweet taste that filled her mouth when she sucked their blood dry off their body and the bitter after-taste later._

_But the most important thing she couldn’t forget was the shocked look on their faces when they fell out of her hands and onto the floor on a careless heap. Those wide bulging eyes, their pale faces and their mouths opening and frozen into a half-scream really reminded her of the same expression she had seen in her nightmares._

_They reminded her of the surprised and shocked look on_ _Brooklyn_ _’s face in her nightmares when she found out that she had sucked his blood._

_She was scared. Really, really scared. She was scared that her terrible actions would be found by_ _Brooklyn_ _. She was afraid that after knowing that she had hurt and killed humans,_ _Brooklyn_ _would hate her and would leave her for doing so. She didn’t want to be hurt. She didn’t want_ _Brooklyn_ _to leave her. She didn’t want to lose someone whom she loved and being protected from. She didn’t want to even lose the sight of him._

_Yet she knew that deep down inside her heart, sooner or later, she will not be with him ever again._

                                                                                                *

            “Unbelievable. This is the most bizarre case I have ever seen in my entire life.”

            Elisa and her partner Matt were staring over the dead bodies that lay on the floor of the alley. The coroner came in and carried them one by one in their black bags into their van. There were on-lookers and reporters surrounding the crime scene either wanting to see what was going on or wanting to catch the latest scoop for their newspaper or their TV news channel. The police surrounded them, barring them all from coming in.

            “All these people died at the same time. This is too bizarre,” Matt said as he examined one of the bodies. “It looks as if they were sucked dry of their blood like drinking from a small packet drink. Either that or they’ve just been popped into an oven and being overly dehydrated or something.”

            “I’d vouch for the first one, Matt,” Elisa muttered as she took a look at their necks. As she suspected, there were two puncture wounds on each of their jugular. Bite marks, to be more precise. She feared the worst.

            “We also have a few more incidents down at almost every other dark street just like this one, and they were all either squatters or just plain normal citizens,” another officer gave them his report. “They died the same way too looking like dried prunes. So many dead bodies at one night. They sure got our work cut out for us.”

            “What do you think happened, Elisa? Could this be a cult or a ritual of some kind?” Matt asked worriedly.

            “I’m afraid it’s something much worse than that,” Elisa replied in leveled fear, for once wishing that the sun doesn’t set for today.

                                                                                                *

            The sun slowly crept away from the horizon, inching its way for darkness to settle in. The gargoyles began to stir one by one, breaking out of their stone encasing. Elisa could hear their roar as she inched reluctantly up to the clock tower to meet them. How was she going to say that the timid and quiet little Suki they have come to like and whom Brooklyn has come to love was in a rampage to suck blood and kill humans? How would she explain to them that there had been an intensive investigation has been ordered out in search of a cult killer where the truth is that Suki has been feeding on those poor people and that she knew about it? How could she even tell them that Suki, who would never even harm a fly, has already become Demona’s pawn in her plans to wipe out mankind? As she sat on the armchair contemplating and finding the right words to say, Goliath approached her.

            “Any news on Demona or Suki?”

            It took Elisa quite a while to realize that her tall, dark and handsome gargoyle was standing before her, “Oh, sorry, Goliath. I wasn’t paying attention.”

            “Any news about Demona or Suki?” Goliath repeated his question. The rest of the gargoyles, including the ever anxious Brooklyn, gathered around them, the questions written all over their faces.

            “Yes, but I’m afraid it’s bad news,” Elisa said. She took a deep breath before deciding to spit it all out. “Matt and I were called in to a crime scene this morning. It appears that there had been a mound of dead people at a dirty alley of the secluded side of Manhattan, and I’m afraid that this is not going to be a pretty conclusion to who could have done those murders.”

            “Any suspects?” Broadway asked.

            “There’s only one who I can think of,” Elisa replied guiltily. She still wasn’t sure whether the gargoyles—not to mention Brooklyn—could take the shocking pressure of Suki being a wanted suspect of ritual murder.

            “How many has she killed?”

            All heads turned towards the second-in-command of the clan. His eyes were fixed and determined and his face was of none the other gargoyles have ever seen before. They didn’t think that Suki would be the first thing in his mind. He moved closer towards the detective and repeated his question again, “How many has she killed? How many bodies were there?”

            “About 10, give or take, for every street,” Elisa replied. “Their blood was practically sucked dry…”

            Brooklyn didn’t stay to listen to the rest of the details. He swiftly ran out of the tower and jumped off the edge of it, soaring and gliding down quickly towards the city of Manhattan. Goliath, through eye-contact, told the other younger gargoyles to go after him and keep from harm’s way. They nodded and jumped off the edge of the tower as well, following behind Brooklyn’s tail. Goliath and the rest remaining in the tower looked out into the city and stared after the juvenile gargoyles going closer and closer towards the city.

            “Brooklyn is getting more and more to himself now,” Goliath sighed as the last gargoyle disappeared out of sight. “He leaves the tower immediately after he has awakened and he only returns when the sun is almost out in the horizon. Sometimes he doesn’t even come home at all. And he is getting thinner and paler by the night. I fear for his safety and his health.”

            “That lad is up to here about the lass,” Hudson said, making a gesture with his hand. “And I bet me old bones he’s not going to rest until he finds her.”

            “People certainly do crazy things when they’re in love,” Elisa muttered under her breath as she unconsciously wrapped her arm around Goliath’s.

                                                                                                *

            The After-Hours Bar House was pretty full of people at this time of night. There were a lot of people in there from all walks of life and all of them between 18 and above. They were all there for one reason: to get a little booze and have some fun.

            Suddenly someone barged in with a little girl probably not older than 15 in her arms. She had red flaming hair and had some sort of cape draped around her. She seemed pretty panicky indeed as she was looking left and right for someone to help her while holding the limp little girl in her arms.

            “Please! Somebody! Anybody! I need help! My daughter is dying!” the woman with red hair yelled frantically. Her calls caught the bartender’s attention.

            “Yo, lady, wassup?” the bartender asked. “Is your daughter sick or something?”

            “She’s dying! She’s getting weak and will be weaker if you don’t do something!” the woman said as she rushed towards the bartender and placed the little girl on the counter. It appeared that the little girl was wearing a cape just like hers.

            “Hey, lady, this ain’t no hospital,” the bartender replied awkwardly. “I think she needs to see a doctor.”

            “No, she can’t have a doctor! No doctor can cure her! She needs help from you! All of you!”

            “And what is it do we need to do to help her?” one of the customers asked. “Give her a funeral?”

            “No, only your blood.”

            As if by cue, the little girl got up abruptly and pounced onto the bartender, baring her fangs and sinking them into his jugular. Yup, you guessed it. They were none other than Demona and Suki, ganging up together to feed on the humans’ blood and, at the same time, destroy mankind. Suki jumped onto one person after another, ridding them of their blood and filling it into herself. Many screamed and tried to escape but Demona, with her gargoyle strength, barred the doors shut, keeping everyone a prisoner. As the people inside the bar house ran frantically around trying to find a way out, Suki pounced onto them, sucking them dry one by one.

            “Stop it, Suki! STOP IT!!!”

            Suki turned around and was shocked to see Brooklyn, Broadway, Angela and Lexington in the bar house.as the other gargoyles did battle with Demona and tried to free the other surviving victims, Brooklyn swooped towards Suki and grabbed her by the waist with one swipe of his hand. With his mighty claw, he broke a hole on the ceiling of the bar house and climbed upwards with Suki in his arm. Lexington and Angela guided the survivors either from the opened ceiling while the stronger gargoyles Broadway and Bronx fought with Demona and keep her distracted.

            Brooklyn, on the other hand, brought the struggling Suki higher and higher into the sky and towards a tall skyscraper. Once he landed on the skyscraper, Suki immediately scrambled out of his grasp and stood as far away as possible from him, shaking her head slightly.

            “No come near Suki!” she warned. “Suki danger! No come near Suki!”

            “Suki, it’s me!” Brooklyn coaxed as he tried to inch his way towards her. “It’s me, Brooklyn. Don’t you remember me? It’s me, Brooklyn, your friend, your protector, your…your love…”

            “Suki no want be with Brooklyn,” Suki replied sadly. “Suki no want hurt Brooklyn.”

           “There has to be some cure for this. There has to be something to stop you from doing this nasty blood-sucking habit. Please, Suki, don’t leave us anymore. You’re family. You don’t belong with Demona. You shouldn’t even be near her.”

            “Demona make Suki more belong.”

            “Suki, Demona is evil. She is evil and you know it. She’ll do anything to kill the humans that she loathed for centuries and centuries long. Once you’re of no use to her, she’ll kill you too.”

            “Suki no care.”

            “You don’t care, but I care!”

            “Suki evil too,” Suki looked away sadly.

            “No, Suki! Don’t say that! You are not evil! You are evil only if you want to be. You cannot trust Demona. She would do anything to get her way. I don’t want you to kill anymore! I don’t want to see you become like this! Please, don’t leave me anymore. We want you back into the clan. I want you back into my life. Please…”

            "Suki kill humans. Suki suck blood. Suki not in Goliath’s clan anymore. Suki no fit…”

            “They’ll welcome you whenever you want to come back and no matter what you have turned into, Suki,” Brooklyn reassured her. “At least, I would do that if I were Goliath. If it’s blood you want, I am willing to give it to you. You can suck my blood anytime you want. Just come back to me, Suki. Leave Demona and return to my clan. Please.”

            “Too late,” Suki replied as she backed away towards the edge of the skyscraper. “Suki danger and Suki evil. Suki no want hurt Brooklyn. Suki kill people. Suki no want kill Brooklyn.”

            As she turned around to jump off the edge and fly away, Brooklyn grabbed hold of her waist again—this time with both hands—and held on to her real tight. Suki struggled to break free but the relentless Brooklyn refused to let go. He didn’t want her to leave him, not ever again. The nights without her seemed torturous and endless and horribly tragic. He was sure that he couldn’t live without her anymore. He was sure and true to his feelings that he had actually fallen in love with this mysterious, timid little hybrid.

            “Suki, Suki, please! I beg of you! Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me anymore! Please, I beg you with my life! You have no idea how hard it was for me without you around! I can’t let you out of my sight ever again!”

            “Let go! Let go~!! No touch Suki!! No touch Suki~!!!”

            “I love you, Suki! _I love you_!!”

            They struggled and struggled, one wanting to break free and the other not wanting to let go. Suki knew that Brooklyn was stronger but she had to try fighting him off anyway. The struggle made her lose her balance and both of them soon were plummeting down towards the ground below. Brooklyn opened his wings just in time and held onto Suki tight, determined to keep her by his side and take her back to the clock tower where she belongs. He’ll obey any confinements Goliath might give if that’s what it takes to make her stay. He’ll oblige to asking Xanatos for help if it means being able to cure her habit of blood-sucking. He’ll give her his blood if there is no cure for her. He’ll do anything. Just anything…

            “AHH!!”

            His thoughts were cut short when he felt a sharp jab on his neck. He lost control of his flight and fell slowly down towards the ground. He was lucky that below him was the park and he soon landed on the thick bushes. He tried to get up but he couldn’t. he could feel something warm trickling down his shoulder and towards his chest. That’s when he realized that Suki had actually sunk her teeth onto his neck and was sucking his blood. She was trying to kill him! She was trying to snuff the life out of him just to escape his grasp! Has she become evil? Has she really become as evil as Demona? He could hardly believe the fact that Suki was actually feasting on him.

            And yet part of him was glad.

            If he were to die, at least he was dying in the hands of his love.

            As he felt himself slowly slipping into unconsciousness, the last thing he saw was Suki’s purple eyes glowing…

                                                                                                *

            Demona roared and thrashed at everything she saw once she was at her home. She couldn’t believe it. She was so close into killing another batch of humans and yet the gargoyles of Goliath’s clan had to come and foil it all. And what’s worse was that Brooklyn had stolen from her the best pawn she could ever have for her diabolical plans.

            “When I get my hands on Goliath and his clan, I swear I’ll…”

            Her ranting stopped when she heard a tiny rap on her window. She went over and opened it and was surprised to see Suki in the mid-air. She stepped aside to let her into the room. Suki swooped silently inside and sat on the bed, looking pretty downcast.

            “What brings you here? I thought you were taken away by your precious prince.”

            “Suki no want be Brooklyn anymore. Suki no want be in Goliath’s clan,” Suki replied bitterly.

            “Is that so? What makes you think I should trust…” Her words stopped abruptly when Suki looked up suddenly with a purple glow in her eyes.

            “Suki just want blood.”


	13. Chapter 13

            _She could feel herself getting closer and closer towards the dark side. She could feel herself changing from the timid, scared-of-everything little girl into a bloodthirsty vampire hybrid who is bent on helping the gargoyle Demona to do her bidding and destroy all the humans she once was._

_Somehow she felt that Demona was quite right about the humans. She had seen the way the humans reacted when she and Demona appeared in front of them. They looked as if they were terrified of them, scared and horrified by their appearance and if they could and have the courage to do so, they would want to kill them. They run at the sight of them and they scream like hell was going to come and claim their souls or something like that._

_Well, she and Demona_ are _coming to claim their lives anyway, literally._

_Demona was right. She was right all along. Humans really don’t appreciate people who are different than they are. They really see things which are different as a threat. They didn’t stop to think or find out who they really are and what their purpose in this Earth is all about. They are just so bent on trying to get rid of people who are different from them and bring the ones that are as same as they are closer to them. They take the protection they were given by those who are different for granted and when they have no use to them, they try to eliminate them without trying to understand what they need. She found it hard to believe that she used to be this kind of race._

_When she thought about it, she couldn’t see why Goliath tries to protect this race who doesn’t even know that the clan existed and fear them whenever they actually appear up close and personal to them. Goliath told her before that she was one of them and that she also has an obligation just like the rest of the gargoyles to protect and watch over the humans._ _Brooklyn_ _even volunteered to protect the humans alongside with her and help her out in any way he could to make her understand her purpose. She understood the purpose now and yet somehow she felt that it was practically the dumbest, most worthless purpose she had ever brought herself to believe in._

_Their cause is meaningless and should be enlightened to a truer purpose. Demona was right. They are against her and should not be of any connection to her. Any enemy of Demona is an enemy of her._

_Including_ _Brooklyn_ _._

                                                                                                *

            “He’s awake! Oh, thank the gods, he’s awake!”

            Brooklyn opened his eyes slowly and could barely hear Lexington’s excited voice. He held out his hand and reached over towards the place on his neck where it hurt slightly. Then the memory slipped silently back into his mind. He remembered the pair of sharp fangs buried into his jugular by the hybrid gargoyle he had come to love. He was actually attacked and was almost killed by Suki, his love. He felt the bandage on his neck and let out a small sigh before shifting his eyes towards his clan.

            “Are you alright, Brooklyn? You gave us quite a scare there,” Goliath asked as he knelt down beside his second-in-command.

            “Yeah. Bronx found you in the park after Demona got away from us,” Broadway said as he sat his brother up. “You were bleeding from the neck and we thought you were a goner. We took you home and stayed by your side until dawn broke, and we seriously hoped that the morning sleep will heal, seeing that you have lost so much blood.”

            “But after the sun set and we broke out of our stone sleep one by one,” Lexington continued, “you took your time to break and when you did break, you didn’t stretch or yawn like we did. The stone skin just broke and you just fell onto the floor like a rag doll.”

            “We were so afraid that you lost so much blood that even the stone sleep couldn’t cure you,” Angela said worriedly. “You were barely breathing. We couldn’t do the…CPR Elisa taught us, so we had no choice but to try and shake you awake.”

            “That explains the dizziness of my head,” Brooklyn muttered in a half-jokingly way.

            “Who did this to you?” Goliath asked, his voice rumbled in his throat with a serious tone. It sounded pretty authoritative and Brooklyn was afraid. He could tell from that tone that Goliath was going to pulverize the person who had hurt him. He remained quiet, his hand still on the neck, fingering the bandage.

            “Who else but his vampire girlfriend?” Lexington said in a grudging tone. “I knew she was a bit of a trouble from the start. She probably tried to kill him just like she killed all the other humans in the bar…”

            “She didn’t mean it, OK?” Brooklyn hissed, not wanting Lexington to say anything bad about his love. “She just wanted to get away and escape from me. She didn’t mean to hurt me…I’m sure of it.”

            “No matter what the reason,” Goliath said as he helped Brooklyn to sit up, “she has gone against us and has deserted our clan. She is now our enemy and must be stopped at all costs before she kills again, even if it means taking drastic measures.”

            “Please don’t kill her, Goliath,” Brooklyn pleaded. “I beg you, Goliath. She really didn’t mean to hurt me. It’s just…”

            “I, too, would not wish to hurt her. She had been a fond member in our team and I would like to avoid anything unwanted if I can. But if the situation gets bleak, I’m afraid we’ll have no choice.”

            Brooklyn lowered his head, feeling downcast. Deep down inside, he knew that Goliath was right and that if the situation persisted, none of them will have a choice to do otherwise. Her thirst for blood, as shown in the bar house he and his brothers barged in, was more lethal and insatiable than they could’ve imagined. She has begun to become a threat to the human race he and the clan had sworn to protect.

            But he just couldn’t stand the idea of killing her.

                                                                                                *

            The sound of beating wings outside Demona’s little home alerted her. She rushed over to open the window for whoever it was that was hovering outside her window to come in. Suki, who was sitting beside Demona’s chair by the fireplace, looked at the window curiously from her spot.

            “Thailog, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you, my love.”

            Suki stared at the gargoyle that entered the room. His white hair and red eyes looked new to her, and his skin was so dark that if they hadn’t turned on the lights, she probably wouldn’t be able to see him. The funny thing was that he looked exactly like Goliath. Suki was a little scared: Has Goliath turned himself into a different form to trick Demona and take her back to the clan and back to Brooklyn she just tried to kill? Suki growled and backed away.

            “Looks exactly like your clan leader Goliath, doesn’t he?” Demona turned to Suki who was keeping a wary eye on Thailog. “Don’t worry, he’s not Goliath. He’s a very dear love of mine, just like between you and Brooklyn.”

            “Brooklyn not Suki’s love,” Suki shifted her gaze for a while, then eyed Thailog’s jugular hungrily and grinned. “Is Thailog for Suki eat?”

            “Don’t you even think about it, you little vampire,” Demona hissed. “Sorry, Thailog. She’s been trying to get used to enjoy the blood consumption. I guess she got a pint of blood too many.”

            “I have heard a lot about your news on my way here,” Thailog said as he brought a copy of a newspaper for Demona to see. On the newspaper was a very huge headlines writing ‘VAMPIRES: TRUTH OR CULT?’ with a very big picture of dead people stacked up in a careless heap, their bite marks being highlighted. “It seems that you have a great head start in fulfilling your mission and your wildest dreams. I suppose she’s the one been doing your dirty work, isn’t she?”

            “She certainly is, and what a prized jewel she is. With an appetite for blood like her, we’ll soon take our rightful place as rulers of this earth and no one, not even one single human, will ever tear this truth apart. It may take some time for her to eliminate all the beings in this world, but with the modern technology in this century, we could definitely figure out something to create more creatures like her.”

            “And I, a gargoyle born of this century and with the brains of both my fathers Sevarius and Xanatos, can definitely come up with a certain plan on creating that batch,” Thailog replied as he eyed thoughtfully at Suki who was still eyeing at Thailog with that hungry look on her eyes. “Are you sure she won’t bite?”

            “As long as I have her on the leash, she’s pretty much harmless,” Demona replied, then fell into her evil sweetheart’s arms and asked, “So, what brings you here, my love?”

            “I’m here because I have a perfect preposition for you,” Thailog said as he brought Demona’s face closer to his mouth before whispering, “Listen…”

            And as the huge Goliath-like white-haired gargoyle clone whispered his plans to his redhead gargoyle, Suki continued to watch with curiosity over the two.

                                                                                                *

            Xanatos and Owen were in their office as usual checking what’s new on the market and, at the same time, trying to figure out the whereabouts of Ms. Dominique Destin a.k.a. Demona. The fact that there was someone more successful in business than him kind of tweaked Xanatos a little, and finding her became a little personal to him than wanting to help the gargoyle clan to help find Suki.

            Suddenly there was a loud, long beep in one of the computer screens. Xanatos shifted his gaze from his laptop towards that computer while Owen had a head start in clicking the keyboards into finding out what was going on. As Owen scanned through the perimeters and zoomed in the screen, the screen soon showed something in the landscape that both Owen and Xanatos were familiar of.

            “Sir, it appears that there seems to be some sort of a disturbance in the abandoned building on the land you’ve recently bought,” Owen commented as he pointed at the blinking spot on the landscape.

            “Ah, the building that I have bugged so that I can keep track of any trespassers coming into my property,” Xanatos remembered the land he had bought from someone who was going bankrupt in his business and going down the drains in debts. “Now who could that be, I wonder?”

            “Shall I get us a vehicle to go and check it out?” Owen offered as he took out his cell phone.

            “Do that,” Xanatos replied. “We’ll see who the fool to cause this unnecessary disturbance is.”

            While Owen made the arrangements, a dark figure with long white hair and a beak-like mouth hid in the corner of the window listening to every word before taking off down the moonlit sky.


	14. Chapter 14

_She was ordered by Demona to get going. She saw Demona and the Goliath look-a-like named Thailog held hands as they jumped off the window of Demona’s bedroom and into the night sky. She, on the other hand, jumped off alone._

_Seeing them together flying side by side in the mid-air towards wherever this Thailog was taking them reminded her of what she and_ _Brooklyn_ _had been doing for the past few nights. She and_ _Brooklyn_ _had spent nights that she would never forget. She began to remember the first day she met_ _Brooklyn_ _—not as a hybrid now, but as a human she once was. She remembered the riot happening when rubble fell from the sky. She remembered ditching her friends and followed closely behind Elisa to go up and find out what was causing the rubble shower. She remembered laying her eyes on the clan for the first time and the first gargoyle she saw standing out from the rest—_ _Brooklyn_ _. All those memories came back to her again one by one, just like the day she began to remember her past after hearing Elisa’s theory on her investigation._

_Then she remembered meeting_ _Brooklyn_ _for the first time as a gargoyle hybrid. She remembered how scared she was being surrounded by weird-looking beings she forgotten that she had met before. She remembered how calm she felt when she was under_ _Brooklyn_ _’s care and his wing in her reach. She remembered the nights when she and_ _Brooklyn_ _with the rest of the juvenile gargoyles went out to interesting places she forgot that she had been before. And above all that, she remembered how blissful it felt flying together side by side with_ _Brooklyn_ _, holding his arm and never wanting to let go._

_All that has changed now. All that has become another distant memory she will soon forget, just like how easily she forgot her past as a human. Things will never be the same again between her and Brooklyn, not after when she discovered how lethal she was to both the clan and to the people around her and definitely not after she discovered that she actually did what she feared she would do: sucking her love’s blood. The vampiric urge inside her has awakened and was taking over her humanity. She didn’t want any of this to happen but it did. And it cost her greatly._

_As they reached their destination, the distant smell of blood swept her musings away and lit the fire of hunger within her._

*

            The night was silent as three figures landed onto the top floor of an abandoned building. Thailog looked around to see if anyone was watching before gesturing Demona and Suki to follow him. They went down a long flight of steps, which had practically seen better days. It was as if one more pressure on those steps and they will find themselves falling through it and towards the hard solid ground below. The walls were deteriorating both in colour and in structure. You could see patches of bricks here and there and there were moss and fungi gathering everywhere. The whole place, too, smelt seriously of fungi. Demona grimaced a little at the sight of it.

            “Nice place you got here,” Demona commented sarcastically. “Pretty comfy, don’t you think, vampire?”

            “Luxurious life heightened up your sense of taste, hasn’t it?” Thailog grinned. “I’ve did a little research of my own and I have discovered this place fully abandoned and fully unused. The owner of this building had long since lost his business due a certain faulty procedure in his products. He went in and out of courts for many weeks until he was finally declared bankrupt. He finally sold this building and the land with it to Xanatos. What I’ve heard is that Xanatos will be demolishing this building by the end of this month. I’ve heard that this land still serves itself as a profitable asset for Xanatos.”

            “Xanatos?” Demona smirked a little. “Anything that concerns with money never fails to escape his eye. I bet my company can outrun him better. But what does this place have to do with your plan in helping me destroy the human population?”

            “Remember, back at your home, what I told you about those fanatics?” Thailog said as he shifted his red eyes towards Suki who was following him quietly behind. “Your plan of killing the humans and Suki’s way of doing it has made a great impact on the nation, especially the gothic and dark cult practitioners. They believe that the end is near and that their so-called ‘Devil’ has come in the form of a vampire to rid the earth of its people. So I have gone to them and posed as the so-called ‘Devil’s Messenger’ and told them that I would bring the ‘Devil’ to them. I also told them to bring as much victims as they possibly can so that they can sort of serve their purpose in assisting the ‘Devil’ to world destruction.”

            “Now that’s an interesting idea,” Demona said, impressed. “We do not have to hassle about skulking in the dark and worry about finding victims, and we won’t have to worry about bumping into unwanted people. They come straight into our doorstep, served in a silver platter.”

            “And we won’t have to promise the cult followers anything,” Thailog grinned maliciously as he stopped in front of a huge door. He pulled it open and showed the females proudly a great parade of humans in a wide warehouse cheering and talking in leveled tones at the sight of Thailog’s arrival and a whole lot more humans locked in a giant-sized cage, crying and screaming and begging for mercy, demanding to be let go. Demona stared at this in awe. Suki eyed at all the people gathered there waiting to be consumed but remained where she was before being given the cue. She wanted to just pounce on each and every one of those humans and suck the life force out of them but she had no choice but to wait for the cue. She was trained to follow Demona’s orders.

            “Thailog, I have just found another reason to love you even more,” Demona said as she wrapped her arms around his.

                                                                                                *

            “Where is Brooklyn?”

            All the gargoyles looked at each other questioningly. They were all getting ready to go out into the night to search for Demona and Suki to stop them from harming any other humans again, but somehow Brooklyn has slipped past their eyes and had disappeared.

            “Oh boy, here we go again,” Broadway sighed and rolled his eyes, getting exasperated with his brother who lately has been running off soundlessly to do things behind their backs.

            “He must’ve taken off on his own again,” Lexington said, his gaze shifted towards the outside of the tower. “He’s always doing that. That lovesick guy never gives up.”

            “Aye, he is a strong-headed lad. What are we to do with him?” Hudson asked.

            “The usual, I suppose,” Goliath sighed tiredly. “Half of us will take patrol to look for Suki and Demona, and half of you will…”

            “Hey, guys, am I missing anything?”

            The gargoyles turned around and smiled a little to see their favourite human friend Elisa Maza coming up the stairs with her usual work clothes on. Sometimes they suspect that that’s the only work clothes she has for life.

            “Brooklyn walked out on us again,” Angela said as Elisa moved towards the clan. “We are just going to split up and search for both Suki and Demona and Brooklyn as usual.”

            “Maybe there is some place you might want to try out,” Elisa suggested. “I just got a call from Xanatos and he wishes that Bluestone and I go with him to Millstone Mines ‘coz his purchased land had a security breach.”

            “Security breach?” Goliath still couldn’t really get to understand this type of police talk.

            “She means someone is trespassing in Xanatos’ land,” Lexington, the ever smart one, translated for him.

            “That’s right, and he wants me and Bluestone to come with me,” Elisa said. “Also, he wishes a little help from a certain concerned citizens with wings.”

            “Why would Xanatos need our help this time?” Broadway asked suspiciously.

            “Well, if Xanatos want help from you guys, I bet that there must be something serious going on over there to ask for such help. Besides maybe you might find your leads over there.”

            “Are you saying that either Demona and Suki might be there or Brooklyn would be there?” Broadway and Lexington asked almost simultaneously.

            “I’m only making hunches just like we cops always do,” Elisa replied.

            “She may be right, Goliath,” Angela said. “We couldn’t find Demona and Suki anywhere near Manhattan City and Brooklyn might have figured out that they might not be in Manhattan City anymore. They could be there.”

            “She’s got a point there,” Broadway agreed. “From what I’ve heard, Milestone Mines is a few distant miles away from Manhattan City somewhere in the interiors. I have been suspecting Brooklyn to be venturing into further places to find Suki—there was once I had to search for him down into the suburban airport and believe me, it wasn’t easy coaxing him out of there.”

            “Then let us waste no time,” Goliath said as he moved out of the clock tower towards the edge. “If there is any possibility of the three of them to be there, then we shall have to take that chance. Yes, Bronx,” Goliath said when Bronx whined and padded at his feet, “you can come along too.”

            “I’d like to fly with you guys too,” Elisa said. “It’s been a while since I’ve been air-borne. Bluestone can take the car.”

            So, with Elisa in Goliath’s arms and Lexington carrying Bronx, all the gargoyles jumped off the clock tower and swooped down through the night sky towards the direction of the Milestone Mines.

                                                                                                *

            Brooklyn glided through the night sky towards the place where Xanatos and Owen had talked about. If there were disturbances in that place, Suki and Demona would surely to be there. Who else would be able to cause such trouble at an unlikely place like this abandoned building? Certainly not some mere human crooks who want to steal a bunch of useless metal and wood.

            He knew he shouldn’t be doing this alone. He knew he should’ve told his clan first beforehand, but he couldn’t do it. He had no choice. He couldn’t bear letting Goliath know about his suspicions on Suki’s whereabouts and risk the possibility of Goliath killing her. He couldn’t bear it. He just couldn’t bear it. He had to get to Suki first before he and the clan does and get her out of there before it’s too late.

            As the abandoned building came in sight, he swooped down onto the top floor and made his way silently down the unearthly stairs towards the warehouse. From there he could hear cheers and loud chanting of some ancient language he had long forgotten since being trapped in stone for a thousand years. He found himself standing in front of the warehouse door and he could hear the cheers and chanting coming from the other side. Curiosity stepped in as he wondered what these people could be celebrating at a time like this and at a god forsaken place like this rundown building. He looked up and saw that there was an air vent up on the ceiling. He climbed the wall and wriggled his way into the air vent and started crawling. Luckily the air vent fit his body size including his wings, or he would’ve gotten stuck in the midway.

            As he crawled into the other end of the air vent and peered through the opening, he saw a whole crowd of people wearing black robes and their faces were shielded by their hoods, almost like the clothes of the Ring Wraiths in LOTR. Then he saw that behind those black-robed people was the huge cage of people of all ages and their screams of agony and fear definitely did not fit in the merriment of the black-robed people.

            “Children of the Darkness, come and witness the true evil that has awakened unto your cry! Let the blood feast begin!!”

            The black-robed people cheered joyously. Brooklyn couldn’t help thinking that the deep rumbling voice he just heard sounded familiar. He wanted to see who the owner of the voice was but he was out of sight. He shifted his gaze and saw Demona standing at one end of the cage holding a struggling woman while Suki was a few feet away from Demona sucking the blood of a middle-aged man. Brooklyn’s heart went a little sour as it reminded him of Suki sucking his blood.

            He couldn’t sit still any longer. He had to stop this madness. Without waiting another second, he broke through the opening he was peering through and jumped out of the air vent with a loud roar, landing right in front of Suki who was now sucking the woman Demona was holding just now. Everyone was shocked and gasped at the sight of him.

            “Suki, stop it! Stop it right now!” Brooklyn yelled.

            “Brooklyn…?” It was only when Suki finished draining the woman off her blood that Brooklyn’s words got into her ears.

            “Come back with me! Let’s leave this place! Let’s go!” Brooklyn yelled desperately as he pulled at Suki’s hands. Whether it was because she just finished her meal or too ecstatic with blood, surprisingly she didn’t attempt to fight him.

            “No one is going anywhere!”

            Before he knew it, Brooklyn was swiped away and was sent skidding across the floor. As he struggled to get up, he suddenly felt the hard weight from Thailog’s foot as the Goliath clone stepped onto his chest, holding him down.

            “Go…Goliath…?” Brooklyn strained to see and was shocked to see Thailog in the likeness of Goliath, then narrowed his eyes in contempt, “No…I’ve heard about you…Lexington told me…about Goliath having a clone…”

            “My fame has even reached your ears,” Thailog said with a smug. “I’m impressed.”

            “Well, don’t get too swell-headed,” Brooklyn growled.

            “You’re really brave, Brooklyn, to be coming here,” Demona said, moving towards the weak and blank-looking Suki. “You know that it’s rude to crash someone’s party.”

            “Let her go!” Brooklyn snarled, his eyes glowing. “Stop doing this to her! Look what she has become!”

            “Oh, she has become something really fascinating and useful indeed, Brooklyn. She has understood the true purpose of a gargoyle and she has been doing her share of righteous work I have for her. And don’t worry, Brooklyn,” Demona said as she led Suki back towards the cage for her next feeding frenzy, “she’s just gone through a phase of optimum pleasure.after she has her fill, she’ll soon get out of this daze.”

            With that, Thailog lifted his foot off Brooklyn’s chest and grabbed him by the neck before raising him high above his head and throwing him onto the wall, making a dent. The black-robed people cheered as Brooklyn groaned and slumped into a stupor.

            “Bring in the next victims!” Thailog commanded. The black-robed people obeyed, chanting as they did Thailog’s bidding.

            “Remember, Suki. Humans are our enemies and betrayer,” Demona said as she led her towards a petrified-looking boy, “and they are just as good as dead!”

            “Not if I can help it.”

            Demona turned sharply to see Goliath standing in front of the boy with his wings spread, shielding him, and Elisa standing beside him. Their eyes met and instantly glowed, showing their distaste for each other. The rest of the clan flew in, ready for a fight. The black-robed people stood there, looking confused at all these weird creatures around them.

            “They are betrayers of the sacred cause!!” Thailog growled. “They are trying to stop us from doing the Devil’s bidding! Seize them!!”

            All at once, the black-robed people pounced onto the gargoyles. A huge hectic fight occurred. Face-punching, butt-kicking, tail-swishing and bone-crushing ensured. Gun-firing not excluded. Broadway, Lexington and Bronx helped Brooklyn up and joined Goliath in the fight while Hudson and Angela tried to free the people in the huge cage, battling the black-robed people on the way. Soon a few cars came in and they were none other than Matt Bluestone, Xanatos and his trusty secretary Owen. They were also quite shocked to see such hullabaloo going on inside the abandoned building of the land Xanatos bought. They soon kicked into action too, Matt calling for backup while firing shots at the black-robed people together with Xanatos and Owen as they moved in. in the midst of all this chaos, Brooklyn spotted Suki sitting on the floor not moving an inch. He quickly pulled her out of the way and sat her at one corner.

            “Don’t worry, Suki. It’ll be all over soon. You’re going home,” Brooklyn reassured her before leaving off to hekp the other gargoyles fight.

            The fight kept on going and was getting more and more hectic, especially the fight between Demona, Goliath and Thailog. Elisa and Matt made sure that all the victims were out of the building and safe outside the dried mines before helping the other gargoyles apprehend the black-robed people. Xanatos, with his expertise in karate and taekwan-do, took down those who tried to escape and Owen, using the latest technologies, apprehended them and held them down. Seeing that their plans have yet again failed, Demona signaled Thailog and they both retreated up the building towards the top floor. Some of the black-robed people who managed to escape their apprehenders’ grasp followed suite. The gargoyles gave chase, followed by Elisa, Matt and Xanatos. Owen stayed behind to do something.

            Under all that chaotic whatnot, they have forgotten Suki who was still sitting in a daze at the corner Brooklyn had hid her, still not out of the blood-sucking trance she was abruptly broken out. As her eyes came slowly into focus and her body finally having the strength to stand, she caught a glimpse of Owen walking around the warehouse calmly and putting in a box-like gadget on each corner. He took out his palm desktop and clicked a few buttons before rushing quickly towards the top floor. Suki’s appetite for blood hasn’t satisfied yet and the sight of Owen and the realization that her meal has been rudely interrupted brought back the bloody hunger pangs within her. In a thrice, she pounced on the unsuspecting Owen and carried him all the way to the top floor and up into the midair. Broadway, who was trying to crush one of the black-robed people’s guns, saw her first.

            “Look! It’s Suki! She’s got Owen!” he yelled, alerting the others.

            “What?” Xanatos turned to see his secretary struggling to get out of Suki’s grasp.

            “Oh no…No! Suki, no!! Stop!! Don’t do it!!” Brooklyn yelled while trying to push the black-robed man who was on him trying to strangle him.

            Demona and Thailog noticed and smirked—they knew Owen was one of his most important person in his firm. In the midair, Suki bared her fangs and was ready to embed them into the blonde secretary’s jugular. Lexington was about to get ready to fly up and pounce on her but from the corner of his eye, he saw Xanatos taking out his gun from inside his jacket and was aiming it at Suki.

            “Xanatos, what do you think you’re…!?” Lexington didn’t finish his question. He had to stop him. As much as he thought that Suki was trouble, she’s still his sister and a part of the clan.

            His yell alerted the other gargoyles and they were shocked too. Everything went into slow motion as one by one Demona, Goliath, Angela, Lexington and Hudson tried to run over to Xanatos and stop him. Brooklyn still couldn’t break from the black-robed man’s grasp but he struggled to get up anyway.

            Everyone was coming closer to Xanatos. All trying to stop him from firing. They all had different reasons for Xanatos not to shoot her but they all have one desire.

            Don’t let Suki die.

            Suki has started to bite Owen’s jugular. Brooklyn could see Xanatos’ finger pulling the trigger. He let out one desperate cry, “ _Xanatos_ _, don’t kill her~!!!_ ”

            Too late.


	15. Chapter 15

            _She felt a sudden blast on her chest. It felt like being hit by a huge boulder. She couldn’t feel anything at first but when she saw herself beginning to drench in blood the pain was immediately searing through her bones._

_She knew that this was the end. The end of her life and the end of her existence. She will never see Broadway and his obsession with food. She will never see Angela and her lovely smile. She will never see_ _Lexington_ _and play with his videogames. She will never see Goliath and Hudson, the elders of the clan who had been so kind and patient towards her. She will never see_ _Bronx_ _and pet him ever again._

_The more terrible thought was…that she’ll never see_ _Brooklyn_ _again. She will never be with him ever again. Everything that is him would be gone before her eyes: his smile, his eyes, his arms giving her those warm and reassuring embraces, his protective wings that shielded her from any harm, his handsome face and his long billowing hair, everything. They’ll disappear out of her sight forever._

_She fell towards the ground below, her wings failing her. Everything was as if in slow motion. She continued to fall and fall like it would never end._

_Deep down inside, she knew that perhaps, just perhaps, her death was for the best._

                                                                                    *

            “Suki!! NO~!!!”

            Brooklyn, with all his strength, pushed away the black-robed man off him and pushed through the fighting crowd towards the falling Suki. He held out his hands and caught her just in time. He looked in horror at all the blood seeping out of her chest and her face going pale. She was beginning to falter—and fast. Brooklyn’s eyes glowed in anger as he turned to Xanatos who, in turn, had caught the falling Owen, and snarled.

            “What have you done to her?! Why did you do this?!”

            “There’s no time for pep talk, Brooklyn,” Xanatos replied briefly before turning towards Goliath, “Goliath! You have to get out of here. I had Owen set up a bomb in this place and it’ll blow within the next 15 seconds!”

            Goliath’s growl rumbled in his throat as he broke out of the heap he had fallen on when he tried to grab Xanatos and went off to alert Matt. Demona staggered to stand upright as she glared at Xanatos with her glowing red eyes with a vengeance.

            “You have destroyed my most potential weapon to destroy mankind, and I thought you were my ally! Don’t think you have won the war yet!”

            Within a thrice, Demona raced towards the edge of the building and jumped off, following behind Thailog. The building was beginning to rumble as the bomb slowly activated itself. Soon a loud explosion was heard and the building began to crumble bit by bit. It was going down quite fast that the gargoyles didn’t think that they will have enough time to save all of the humans. Suki and Elisa were in Brooklyn and Goliath’s arms respectively and the rest just grabbed whatever human they could manage and jumped off the building. Owen quickly jumped up onto Xanatos’ back before Xanatos activated his rocket boots he wore on his way to Milestone Mines and flew off with the clan.

            As soon as they were on the ground at a safe distance from the crumbling building, the clan and the humans gathered around Brooklyn who was kneeling on the ground with the blood-drenched Suki in his arms. She still had breath left in her but everyone looked with a heavy heart as they knew she could never survive, the shot Xanatos fired was fatal.

            “You shot her,” Brooklyn hissed, holding Suki close.

            “I had to do something. She was trying to make a dinner out of Owen. I’m sorry, but I can’t afford to lose a potential personal secretary,” Xanatos replied, setting Owen down on the ground. “Besides, I was doing you a favour. You know perfectly well that you cannot risk her going out on a blood-feeding frenzy again.”

            “But you didn’t have to shoot her. She’s a living being,” Goliath growled as his glowing eyes glared at Xanatos, his words speaking for all the gargoyles that were glaring grudgingly at him. Xanatos accepted those looks nonchalantly—he had worse remarks.

            “Suki…Suki, please…” Brooklyn whispered as he shook Suki lightly, trying to wake her up. after much shaking and calling, she finally did. Quite slow though, but still she was awake.

            “Brooklyn…” Suki breathed her lover’s name.

            “Suki, hang in there. You’re gonna be OK. You’re gonna be alright. I’m just right here,” Brooklyn encouraged, although deep down inside he knew, she wasn’t going to pull through.

            “Brooklyn…Suki sorry…Suki make trouble…” Suki said but Brooklyn hushed her.

            “Shh…It’s not your fault. This has all been nature’s big mistake. You’re gonna be alright.”

            “Suki…cannot be with Brooklyn…Suki die…”

            “Don’t say that!” Brooklyn exclaimed desperately, laying his hand on her cheek which was slowly going cold. “Don’t you ever say that! You’ll be alright! We’re together now, and we’ll always be together. We’ll be going home together and you will be my mate, always and forever more.”

            Suki shook her head slightly and breathed, “Suki…not want…hurt Brooklyn…”

            “There will be a cure,” Brooklyn replied indignantly. “There has to be a cure to stop you from blood-sucking. We will find a cure…”

            “No cure…Suki no cure…Suki know…”

            Brooklyn’s heart ached. Why did everyone that he cared or loved never stay by his side? Maggie Reed refused to follow him because she thought of him as a monster and refused to be one herself. Angela didn’t return his love, but loved his brother Broadway instead. And now Suki was slowly slipping away from his hands and closer to the brink of death. This wasn’t fair! This wasn’t fair at all!

            “Suki…why? Why, Suki…?” Brooklyn couldn’t hold back his tears any longer. They fell freely like rain out of his eyes as he hugged Suki closer to him, not wanting to let her go. “Why does it have to end this way…?”

            He felt Suki’s lips on his beak-like mouth. He opened his eyes and saw Suki’s hand gripping tightly on his wing, just like the first time she did it when she came into the clan. He turned to Suki and saw her smiling weakly at him. Her dark pruple eyes were filled with bliss and content, like she had finally achieved what she had wanted and had no more regrets.

            “Ai…Aishiteru…Brooklyn…”

            Her grip on Brooklyn’s wing slowly weakened. It slid off his wing and fell onto her side. Her eyes closed, covering those beautiful dark purple eyes forever. Brooklyn’s heart sank and his eyes went blank. He could feel his heart breaking as the life of the hybrid gargoyle he had come to love finally slipped out of his grasp and disappeared out of his life. The other gargoyles looked on in sorrow and downcast. Angela sobbed silently on Broadway’s shoulder and Goliath laid his hand on Elisa’s shoulder who looked like she was also going to cry. Bronx whined sadly.

            Xanatos, though not obvious, was also feeling a little sorry for Brooklyn. He turned to Owen and asked, “Owen, what does she mean by…?”

            “It’s Japanese,” Owen replied quietly. “It means ‘I love you’.”

            With trembling hands, Brooklyn held Suki tighter, trying to suppress the aching feeling in his heart. He tried to be strong like Suki had known him to be. He tried to hold on to the happiness and let go of the sadness just like he tried to when Maggie Reed and Angela broke his heart. But try as he might, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t suppress the pain. He couldn’t take it all in. it was too much for him to bear.

            It has come to the point where he couldn’t take it anymore.

            “SUKI~~~~!!!!”

                                                                                                *

            The gargoyles were back at the clock tower. The whole tower abnormally quiet as the sad mourning atmosphere hung about. They were evidently devastated about Suki’s death. They found it hard to believe that the Suki who took them quite a long while to tame and who had brought joy to the clan—although for a short period of time—was now no more. She was truly gone.

            Perhaps the gargoyle who felt the loss the most would be Brooklyn. He was outside the tower sitting on the edge of the tower musing and grieving over Suki. Broadway and Lexington did think about comforting Brooklyn but Goliath fobade them to do so.

            “Words are not enough to heal his broken heart. Only time can heal his wounds.”

            Elisa saw the other gargoyles gathering at their places, not wanting to bother Brooklyn’s musing. She sighed and went up to the face of the clock and out into the open.

            “Brooklyn, are you alright now?” Elisa asked, although she knew it was a stupid question.

            “How can I be?” Brooklyn replied quietly.

            “She’s gone, Brooklyn. None of your grief could ever bring her back. You do realize that, don’t you?”

            “Yes,” Brooklyn whispered. “But…It’s just that…It’s just that no one has ever done something like this for me. No one has ever tried to make themselves into something they’re not just to be with me. No one would ever go through all the trouble and all the pain…and risk their lives just to be with someone like me.”

            “Except Suki,” Elisa pointed out.

            “I feel…like as if I am responsible for her monstrosity and her death. If it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t have to go through all this. She would’ve just led her life as a scientist and remained alive, just like she was supposed to be. If it weren’t for me…” Brooklyn put his hands over his head in remorse. Elisa laid her hand on his shoulder to stop him short.

            “Don’t blame yourself, Brooklyn. It was no one’s fault. She did this by her own accord, and you’ve given her the best days in her entire life. For years she has been living a monotonous life of a child prodigy. It’s not easy being a genius, Brooklyn. No true friends, no rest, forever having to come up with new solutions, no time for love, nothing. You have made her the happiest person in the world.”

            Brooklyn didn’t reply. Elisa could see that he wasn’t thoroughly convinced. She dug her pocket and took a golden locket. She tapped Brooklyn on the shoulder and handed the locket to him.

            “What is this?” Brooklyn asked, taking the locket.

            “I found this among the pictures inside the case at Suki’s home,” Elisa replied. “Open it and take a look.”

            Brooklyn did as he was requested. Inside the locket he was quite surprised to see that in one side of the locket was his picture and in the other side was Suki’s picture as a human, smiling at the camera just like she smiled when she was beside him. It was Suki—his Suki—immortalized in this picture where he and her would be together. Forever.

            As Brooklyn put on the locket around his neck, he made a vow, “Suki shall be my mate, and will always be my mate forever. I shall have no other.”

            Elisa sighed. Inside, she felt that such vow would only hurt himself, but she knew she had no place to question Brooklyn’s decision. The only thing she could do before leaving him alone was pat his arm and say, “Just…take care of yourself.”

            Under the creeping rising sun, Brooklyn cried…


End file.
